


Briar Rose

by emmiegrace



Series: Among Thorns [2]
Category: Broadchurch, Doctor Who
Genre: Child Murder, F/M, Graphic depictions of violence - Freeform, Murder, Panic Attacks, Past Abuse, Past Character Death, Past Domestic Violence, Past Drug Use, Past Rape/Non-con, Past Relationship(s), Pregnancy, Stalking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-09
Updated: 2019-04-18
Packaged: 2019-11-14 05:44:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 40,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18046625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emmiegrace/pseuds/emmiegrace
Summary: As Broadchurch is dealing with the trial, Rose's past comes back to haunt her.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Rated M for tagged reasons. Please read at your own discretion.

Rose woke up choking on the smell of mold and rust. She sat bolt upright in bed, sweat plastering her hair to her forehead, fist swinging through the air at an attacker that wasn’t there.

Finally her eyes flung open and she found herself safe in a comfortable bed, the room smelling like a combination of the air freshener plugged into the wall and the sea breeze coming through the open window. She looked around confusedly for the source of her nightmare, and found it in her husband’s obvious absence. She huffed in annoyance and threw the covers off her legs.

She padded through the house with her arms crossed in front of her. They had finally managed to move house after Joe had been arrested six months back. It wasn’t as claustrophobic now. Two floors, four bedrooms, and a big picture window that opened out right onto a hill overlooking the beach.

That’s where she found Alec—out on the terrace, watching the early morning sunrise. He looked up as she slid the door back. “Hey,” he started, and then took in her expression. “Sorry, did you have a nightmare?”

He at the very least had the decency to look sheepish, so she decided to forgive him. Instead of reprimanding him for leaving, she just took his tea from his hand and claimed it as her own with a large gulp and a purposefully raised brow—waiting for an explanation.

“Sorry, I got a call, didn’t want to wake you.” He held up his mobile for emphasis. “I planned on coming back to bed but…” he sighed, and Rose didn’t like the look he was giving her—like he didn’t want to tell her something.

She shivered though just before he could go on (as she was currently only dressed in an oversized t-shirt and shorts, and March in Dorset was far from  _ warm _ ), and his face morphed into one of concern. “Come on, you shouldn’t be out here dressed like that. Not in your condition.”

Rose rolled her eyes. “Alec, I’m pregnant, not terminally ill,” she replied dryly, but stood up anyway, allowing him to guide her back into the house.

They sat together on the sofa, and Rose’s hand went to trace the small scar across his heart, left over from the surgery he’d gotten in October, as she waited for him to tell her what he didn’t want to. She loved that scar. That small bit of proof in second chances. Her other hand fell absentmindedly to her four-months pregnant belly as it was wont to do now that she was showing, and Alec tracked the movement.

“Jimmy Stone,” Alec finally spoke, voice rough, “he’s been released on license.”

 

Ellie flicked on the light of the police vehicle as a man went speeding past them going ten over.

She walked up to his window once they’d pulled over. She was wearing the usual traffic cop garb—bright yellow jacket, checkered bowler hat, the whole thing. Like a child in a Halloween costume.

“I'm really sorry,” the man apologised quickly. “I didn't realise—”

“You were speeding,” Ellie cut him off emotionlessly.

“I've got a hospital appointment. Biopsy results. My last meeting, it ran over—”

“Of course it did.” Ellie remained unfazed by his excuses.

“Look, here's my appointment card.” He showed her the pink slip of paper that did in fact mark him as running late for biopsy results. She just blinked boredly down at it.

Behind her, the young officer she normally worked with there in Devon Police Station mumbled to her, “Come on, give him a break.”

Ellie barely glanced over to her. “License, please,” she said to the man.

 

“Oh my God,” Rose paced anxiously back and forth across their sitting room. “He’s going to kill me—no, worse. He’s going to kill you and Daisy and our unborn child and just keep me prisoner—”

“Don’t say things like that,” Alec cut her off firmly, standing up and reaching out to grab her arms and stop her from making another turn about the room. “I’ve already got people back at Scotland Yard keeping track of him. They promised they’d shout if anything goes amiss.”

Rose bit her lip, looking up at him through her lashes. “What if he finds us, Alec?”

“He won’t.”

Tom Miller appeared at the bottom of the stairs then, holding up his mobile. “Sorry, Olly’s just phoned to ask where you were,” he spoke to Alec, “said you were supposed to be meeting him for an interview before the thing today?”

“Bollocks,” Alec muttered, just barely remembering to place a reassuring kiss to the top of Rose’s head before barreling up the stairs to get ready.

Rose shook her head, smirking as she watched her husband disappear around the corner. She looked down to Tom. “How about you and I get started on breakfast before school then, yeah?”

Tom had started staying at the Tyler-Hardy residence off and on since Ellie had run away to Devon. He hadn’t wanted to move at all, but he also wasn’t speaking with his mother (for reasons unbeknownst to any of them). So he now rotated between their house and his Aunt Lucy’s. Both of them allowing it just because it made Ellie feel better to know where he was and how he was doing, and none of them wanting to force the boy to do anything he said he didn’t feel comfortable with—not after what’s happened.

Daisy walked into the kitchen a few minutes later tying her hair into a messy bun as Rose pulled fruit out from the fridge and directed Tom to heat up the frying pan. “Are we all doing school today?” she asked, wrinkling her nose.

“Well, I’m not.” Rose smirked, popping a blueberry into her mouth. “You two are welcome to stay home, but I’d have to call a sitter.”

Tom and Daisy shared a disgusted look across the breakfast bar at that, and shook their heads vehemently. “No, I’m good with school,” Tom answered quickly.

“School’s good, yeah,” Daisy agreed.

Alec came charging down the stairs then as Rose laughed at the kids. “All right, I’m off,” he said, kissing Rose and Daisy quickly, and mussing Tom’s hair. He grabbed a stray child-sized granola bar from the table. “This’ll do,” he nodded, and kissed Rose again before shooting out the back door.

 

Very few people knew that DI Alec Tyler-Hardy was actually capable of  _ not _ looking like he had an entire tree up his arse. Tom Miller was one of those people now.

Alec tried not to think about that too much as he walked onto the beach where Olly and Maggie were already waiting for him. “Where the hell have you been?” Oliver demanded.

Alec squinted at the young man and rolled his eyes. “Watching after your cousin,” he answered dryly, even though that was only a partial truth.

“All right boys, settle down,” Maggie sighed, getting them back to business.

Olly held the microphone end of his mobile up to Alec as the interview began. “Right, DI Tyler-Hardy, you must be anticipating the relief today's court date will bring.”

“It's only the plea and case management hearing,” Alec replied boredly, shooting Maggie an annoyed look for letting him lead.

“But you're pleased you got the right man in the dock?” Oliver pressed. 

Alec squinted down at him reproachfully. “What sort of a question is that? ‘Pleased?’” He looked over to Maggie incredulously. “Is that how you train him?” 

Maggie only shrugged. At this point she was well used to these two arguing, and she felt absolutely no need to add any fuel to the fire.

Alec huffed. “Today's hearing is the result of a thorough investigation by a team of dedicated officers who worked day and night under difficult circumstances.” He just went ahead and gave them the quote they needed, no prompt necessary.

“And how will you personally  _ feel _ seeing Joe Miller again?” Maggie spoke up finally.

“No,” Alec answered immediately, shaking his head. “Don't do that. It's not about me.”

“He's the husband of your old detective sergeant!” Maggie protested. “The father of one of your daughter’s best friends! You just said Tom Miller has been—”

“Maggie,” Alec warned her seriously, and she had sense enough to snap her mouth closed, even if she did look put-off about it.

She did go on though, changing tactics. “You must want the same as us,” she said, “Joe Miller sentenced for what he did. As soon as that happens, we can all move on.”

Alec only kept his face carefully passive though. “You know I can't comment in advance of today.”

“You’ve recently been reinstated as Detective-Inspector following a forced medical leave,” Oliver butted in again, and Alec raised a condescending brow as he turned back to him. “Has your health continued to affect your work like it had during the investigation?”

Alec glared at him—if looks could kill, the young man would have been turned to dust. “You can probably stop taking the arsehole pills now, Oliver.”

“All right!”  Maggie cut in before Olly could reply. “Picture! If you just stand there…” She motioned him back a few steps.

He looked behind him to the cliff where Danny’s body had been found. The place where the forensics tent had been was now replaced with a pile of fallen rubble. “Here? Really?”

“Yeah, that cliff fall's recent,” Maggie made mild conversation more than she really answered his actual question, clicking away on her camera as she did. “They're getting more frequent.”

Alec looked down to his shoes at that. “Things fall apart,” he muttered to himself.

“It'd help if you look up!” Maggie called, and he just barely managed to keep from rolling his eyes as he did as he was told.

“Smile!” Olly smirked from behind her, and Alec glared further at him. 

 

Mark and Nigel were trying to get the hose going to set up the pool in the nursery.

“Is it working?” Nige called from the bathroom.

Beth sighed as water just dribbled uselessly from the end. “Not exactly.”

Both men appeared in the doorway at that, looking exasperatedly down at the nonfunctioning hose and the empty pool. Nigel stepped forward to take it from her hand. “Pressure’s not strong enough,” he muttered, messing with the washer on the end.

“So fix it,” Beth replied tiredly. “If this pool isn’t full and I’m mid contractions—”

“They’ve got a pool at the hospital,” Nigel grumbled, and Beth rolled her eyes.

“Don’t you start. I’m having a home birth,” she insisted, not for the first time that morning. Over her head Mark and Nigel shared a knowing sort of look that she pretended to miss, sharing her own look with Chloe.

Mark sighed. “All right we need to get going,” he said, clapping his hands together, and then tugging on Chloe’s oversized sweater. “Get changed, Chlo.”

 

After dropping the kids off at school Rose and Alec drove slightly out of the city limits towards Wessex Crown Court. “Are you sure you want to come to this?” he asked.

“I told Beth I’d be there,” Rose repeated tiredly.

“I know but now that—”

“What do you want me to do, Alec?” Rose cut off his protests. “Stay holed up inside the house and pray he gets thrown back in prison before he can find us?”

Alec let out a long breath and reminded himself that his beautiful wife was currently swimming in hormones. “All I’m saying,” he replied calmly, keeping his tone carefully measured so as to not set her off again, “is that you’re going through a lot right now.”

“Yeah, well,” Rose sat back with a huff, “so is Beth.”

 

At the courthouse they saw the Latimer's walking in from the opposite direction and shared small nods before walking through a crowd of journalists begging for quotes.

They met up after passing through security. “You didn’t need to be here,” Alec said, giving them the softest sort of look he could manage.

“No, I did,” Beth insisted, taking a deep breath as she looked up to the detective. “I need to hear him say it.”

Rose pulled Beth into a sideways hug at that, and over the tannoy a voice announced the Miller case. From the benches near them a number of other Broadchurch residents and friends stood up.

Alec spun in a small circle. “Where the hell is she?” he mumbled, walking backwards until he reached the stairs and had to turn around.

 

Ellie ran through the courthouse lawn, knocking over stray photographers on her way, and barely processing her trip through security once she got indoors. She tripped over a few steps on her way up to Courtroom 1, and was thoroughly out of breath by the time she crashed through the doors.

She looked around the quiet room, thankful that the judge hadn’t yet arrived. She made brief eye contact with Rose who pointed to her other side. Ellie turned to see Alec gesturing her over. “Miller!” he stage whispered. “Over here!”

She sat down gratefully, only to have to stand up a moment later as the judge entered.

He sat down and they followed suit. “All parties in the case of Joseph Miller,” he requested, and all heads turned to watch at the door behind the glass casing the defendant box opened, and Joe walked out. 

Joe’s eyes searched about the room, landing on Ellie’s.

“Don’t you look at me,” she growled, tears springing to her eyes at the sight of him.

The bailiff stepped forward. “Are you Joseph Michael Miller?”

“Yes,” Joe answered quietly.

“Joseph Michael Miller, you are charged with murder contrary to common law. The particulars of the offence are that on the 18th day of July 2013, you murdered Daniel Latimer, of 4 Spring Close, Broadchurch, Dorset.” Chloe, Beth, and Mark were all crying again as it played out before them, holding each others hands for support. “How do you plead? Guilty or not guilty?” 

Joe kept his face carefully neutral. “Not guilty.”

“No!” Ellie let out, and all around them the court started mumbling and whispering.

Beth was looking around frantically. “No… no…  he can't… he can’t!” She looked around Mark to see Rose’s horrified expression.

Across the aisle Rose and Alec’s eyes met.

“Er, Your Honour, sorry.” Joe’s barrister sat forward, seemingly uncomfortable. “Um can I just ask for the indictment to be put again?” 

Mark stood up suddenly at that, slamming his hand down on the wooden bannister in front of him. “BE A MAN JOE!” he shouted angrily, tears streaming down his face. “YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED!”

The judge banged his gavel. “Sit down!” he ordered. “I said  _ sit down! _ ”

Nigel pulled Mark back down to his chair, and the judge turned back to the woman representing Joe. “I take it from your reaction, Ms Thompson, that Queen's Counsel have not been instructed.”

“Very much not, Your Honour,” Ms Thompson answered, turning around to glare at Joe incredulously.

“Could you confirm your plea, Mr Miller? Not least, it seems, for the benefit of your own counsel.” 

Joe again, showed absolutely no signs of remorse as he repeated his plea, “Not guilty.”

Beth started uncontrollably sobbing.

 

After they were dismissed Rose went off with the Latimers to find out from their legal counsel what was going on, and Alec watched as Ellie disappeared quickly into the toilets.

He waited around outside of it for a bit, but when she didn’t show after five minutes he grabbed the ‘closed for cleaning’ sign outside the men’s room, and walked into the ladies’, setting it down in there.

He knocked on the only closed stall.

“It’s occupied!” Ellie’s voice called back annoyed, and he could hear that she was crying.

“I know. Come out, Miller.”

The door flung open at that and Ellie stood there, staring at him incredulously. “Go away! It's the ladies! You can't come in!” she shouted at him. 

“What are you doing in there? You've been ages,” Alec shot back dryly, and then looked up as the door opened and another woman walked in. “Oi! There’s a sign! ‘Cleaning in Progress’! Out! Out!” He shooed away the strange and startled woman.

Ellie huffed and walked past him towards the sink, leaning over it to inspect her reflection miserably. Alec sat back against the counter across from her. “Don't let it get to you,” he spoke quietly as she sniffled.

“Oh, well thanks for that. Brilliant advice,” she bit back sarcastically. She wiped her nose, shaking her head and letting out a long breath. “God. You caught Joe. He had Danny's phone, you brought him in, you interviewed him. He didn't resist. He is guilty,” she rambled, needing him to say it was all going to be okay.

“And the case against him is strong,” Alec agreed. “The CPS never had any doubt about prosecuting.”

“Doesn't he know what it's gonna do to Beth and Mark? To all of us?” she sobbed. “Oh, God, who'll tell Tom? He's at school. If his friends find out before him—”

“It’s all right, I spoke to your sister,” Alec cut her off, already ahead of her. “She and Olly are gonna take him out at lunchtime.”

“Well I could go with them. I could see him,” Ellie tried hopefully, wiping at her face without making any real progress towards drying it.

Alec gave her a sorrowful, pitying look. “You know he doesn't want that,” he said quietly.

“I'm his mother!” Ellie protested miserably. “He's only gonna blame me more. How am I ever gonna get him back if there's a trial? How is this my life now?” 

“I'm sorry,” his voice was barely even a whisper now as he stood up straight. “…Do you want a hug?” he offered awkwardly. 

“What? No!” Ellie yelled at him. “What's the matter with you?” 

Alec shoved his hands in his pockets. “I’m just trying to help—”

“What, hug it out?” She yelled incredulously, throwing her bag over her shoulder

Alec shrugged helplessly. “People do that—”

“Well, not you!” She marched past him angrily.

“Just try not to be alone today, Miller,” he called after her.

She didn’t pause on her way to the door. “I am alone, sir,” she growled out.

“You don't have to call me sir anymore.”

“I know.” She answered through her teeth, and then crashed into the cleaning sign. “Oh for Christ's sake! Did you put that there?” she shouted at him, kicking it out of her way and slamming her way out of the restroom.

 

“So what happens now?” Beth asked as Ben Haywood sat down next to Mark in front of them.

Chloe was leaning heavily against Rose, and just behind them Maggie stood as a sort of comforting presence. “It's a full trial, I'm afraid,” Ben answered.

Beth leaned her head back as Mark scrubbed his hands down his face. “I don't believe this,” he mumbled.

Ben nodded. “We need to make sure the CPS find you the best QC, which might be tricky…”

Beth’s eyes widened at that and she sat forward. “You can get us someone, can't you?” 

“Look, I know who you want but you won't get her,” the junior barrister told her honestly. “She hasn't taken a briefing in such a long time… She's the best there is, she lives locally, she's CPS approved…” He shook his head in silent resignation. 

Maggie pressed her lips together. “I know who you mean,” she said, and Rose shot her a curious glance.

 

“Did you speak with Ellie?” Rose asked as they pulled onto the road leading back into town.

“Yeah, she’s…” Alec drifted off, unable to find the words, but Rose nodded in understanding anyway. “You should probably talk to her. You’re better at the whole…  _ people _ thing.”

“Yeah that’s why it means more coming from you,” Rose answered easily, shooting her husband a knowing smirk. “I know she seems angry when you try but I’m sure it does actually mean a lot to her that you do.”

Alec stayed silent as he turned into the school’s lot.

“Heard what happened at the trial,” the receptionist said to them conversationally as they walked in, “don’t know what he’s playing at.”

They both squinted at her incredulously. “How have you already heard?” Rose asked.

“Olly posted it on his blog,” she answered, holding up her mobile for emphasis.

“Oh bloody hell…” Alec grumbled, rolling his eyes and turning away before the woman could start asking him questions about how the trial would go, and Rose mouthed an apology for her husband’s language.

“Shouldn’t he and Lucy have gotten Tom by now?” Rose glanced up at the clock behind the desk. It had been nearly an hour now since they were let out of the courtroom.

The receptionist shook her head. “No they haven’t been by. Did you two want to check him out as well?”

“No, it’s okay…” Rose bit her lip as she considered. “Probably best if family tells him. Then he can decide if he wants to come to ours later.”

The woman made the look Rose and Alec were becoming well accustomed to seeing now whenever they spoke about Tom being at their house—the combination of sympathetic ‘oh the poor kid’ glance down, and judgemental ‘why isn’t he with his mother’ raise of brows.

Thankfully though, Daisy appeared in the doorway before the woman could make a comment. “Is everything all right?” she asked, furrowing her brow at her parents.

 

Maggie ventured up the hill that led to her best friend’s house—not more than fifty metres from the new Tyler-Hardy family residence. She glanced towards the Detective Inspector’s home as she knocked on the door to her mate’s.

She could see Jocelyn inside, sitting with her back to the door with headphones over her ears. Maggie sighed as her knocks went unanswered, and she turned towards the empty flower pots where she knew a key had been hidden.

She pushed back the sliding door, and staggered slightly at the warm air that hit her upon entering. “It's boiling in here! You've got all the radiators on!” she exclaimed. “It's the most gorgeous day!”

Jocelyn turned finally when the curtains were flung open and her sitting room was suddenly filled with light. “Oh, for goodness sake. Stop it! Leave me alone, will you?”

Maggie gave her a bored sort of look. “No,” she answered easily. “Look at you, marinating in self pity.”

Jocelyn huffed and pulled her headphones off fully. “I'm not marinating in anything. I'm listening to a book.” She stood up to raise her brows at her. “You remember books? Hm? Some of us can cope with more than 300 words at a time.”

Maggie rolled her eyes, but otherwise ignored the snark. “You've heard what's happened? To the Latimers?” She asked, chasing the other woman into her home office.

“Yes,” Jocelyn began sorting through papers that didn’t need it. “Are they all right?”

Maggie scoffed incredulously. “’Course they're not all right! They've got to go through the indignity of a full trial!”

Jocelyn dropped her papers to turn to her at that, hands falling to her hips. “What's he playing at?” she asked, eyes narrowing in consideration.

Maggie shook her head, “I don't know, but the family needs help…” Jocelyn turned away from her again, but Maggie simply placed Ben Haywood’s card in her line of vision. “That's their barrister. Young chap.”

“No,” she answered shortly, turning on her heel to walk into the sitting room.

“I haven't even said what I want to say—!”

“I said no,” Jocelyn cut off her protests. “Go away.”

Maggie wasn’t one to take no without a fight though. “They're worried the CPS will fob them off with just anyone,” she went on.

“They're right to be worried, but it's not my problem.”

“Jocelyn—!”

She sighed heavily, and walked until they were standing face-to-face again. “Don't, Maggie. I'm sure you've prepared a barnstorming little speech but you're getting on, save your energy.” She pushed past her back into the office.

Maggie clenched her jaw, and ignored that little jab. “Jocelyn, you know them,” she said to her back.

She didn’t bother to look back at her. “Barely,” she called over her shoulder.

Maggie stomped forward. “You know what it means to all of us. He can't get away with it!”

Jocelyn rolled her eyes. “Spare me the sentimental populism. I get enough of that from your rag.”

“Please!” Maggie followed her back into the foyer.

“No.”

“Why?”

Jocelyn let out a long breath, sitting back down in her chair and refusing to look up to her friend as she answered. “You know why,” she said quietly.

Maggie didn’t let the look dissuade her from her argument though. “We'd find you a team to help! You can't just sit here! The Latimer’s need you!”

“Enough violins now,” Jocelyn folded her arms in front of her stubbornly, “the answer is no.”

Maggie sighed, shaking her head and not bothering to say anything else as she stomped away towards the door, flinging her bag over her shoulder.

“Don't bother to close the curtains and I'm moving the key!” Jocelyn called after her, and Maggie stared at her profile for half-a-second before finally leaving.

Out on the terrace she could just see the Tyler-Hardy’s pulling into their driveway, and she lifted her arm in an aborted sort of wave as the family of three filed out of the car, looking worse for ware.

 

Twenty-four hours after the hearing, Ellie stared off distantly as her therapist asked her how she felt about Joe.

“Do you mean do I still fantasise about beating him with a hammer until he's dead? And do I still daydream about that while I'm making toast? And thinking how often I'd hit him before wiping the blood and the brains off the hammer? Then do I worry if those thoughts make me the same as him?” She sniffed and shook her head. “Not as often, no.”

“And after being in court?”

Ellie pressed her lips together, feeling the tears well up behind her eyes again. “I was doing all right, you know? I was pressing it down, burying it… Cos I taught myself to do that, these past few months, so I could survive…  and then in the court seeing him and then him choosing to-” She cut herself off and took a deep breath. “Cos I thought—okay, naive, but I thought he'd plead guilty, he'd get sentenced and then it'd be done and then in a few weeks, or a month, I could go back to my home, to Broadchurch, and I could cope with all the glances and the stares cos justice would have been done and he wouldn't be coming back…  And then maybe in time, Tom would want to come and live with me again, and we could work that out… It all seems a long way away now.”

“And how are you feeling about that?”

Ellie used the tissue next to her to wipe at her face. “Guilty,” she answered shortly.

“Why?”

She sniffed miserably. “Because it’s my fault.”

An hour later she walked out of the therapist’s office building to find DI Alec Tyler-Hardy leaning against her car. “Miller,” he said by way of greeting.

“Go away! What are you doing here?” Ellie shouted at him incredulously. 

“It's your appointment.”

Ellie glared at him as she stomped forward. “But I didn't tell anyone.” She unlocked the car to shove her things in the back seat. “Have you been following me?” 

“Shut up,” Alec deflected.

“Stalk me and insult me and you wonder why you haven’t got any friends.”

He ignored that. “I'm in a bit of trouble,” he told her

Ellie rolled her eyes. “Yeah me too if I don't collect Fred from the childminder’s in the next twenty minutes,” she replied flippantly, walking around him.

“Seriously,” Alec begged, setting her with a serious look. “I sort of need your help.”

Ellie scrunched her face up angrily at that look and groaned; she hated that look. “Get in,” she grumbled, motioning towards the passenger side door. “For God's sake!”

After Ellie informed him that no, she  _ was _ getting Fred, they ended up sitting outside on his back terrace, overlooking the water, Fred asleep in his pushchair beside them.

“You’ve got a great view,” Ellie said as Alec continued to stay silent—eyes trained on the horizon.

He rather predictably didn’t answer, and she rolled her eyes as he stayed quiet for another few minutes.

Finally, Alec took a deep breath and sat forward. “I need to tell you something, Miller.”

“Yeah I sort of figured that when you turned up uninvited to my appointment,” she retorted sarcastically, but sobered as she watched him grimace. “Shit, you look serious. What’s happened?”

“This has to stay between us,” he warned.

“Yeah, okay.”

“Promise me, Miller.”

“Yes, all right fine, I promise. Now tell me what is going on.”

Alec’s eyes flickered back to the water. “I met Rose at a crime scene,” he started, and Ellie pulled her chin back in surprise. Of all the things she thought he was going to say, that wasn’t one of them.

“What? Rose? Really?” she asked incredulously.

Alec glanced at her sideways, and kept going as if she hadn’t spoken. “It was a murder, and Rose had been the only witness… and now he’s out of prison.”

“Okay, so…” Ellie sat back. “Does he know it was her that did him in?”

Alec finally turned to her. “He was her boyfriend.”

Ellie’s mouth went slack and her eyes widened as she took that in. “You think he’s going to come here?”

“He already has,” Alec told her ominously, standing up and walking towards the back door. 

Ellie noticed then that the handle was at a harsh angle, and one of the panels of glass had been cracked at its center—like it’d been hit by a rock. “Oh my God,” she whispered as Alec led her inside to see their front room in shambles.

“Happened early this morning, sometime after we left and before I came back.”

“Did you report it?”

Alec shook his head. “To who? Myself?”

Ellie rolled her eyes. “Well if it was him that did it then it’s breaking parole and you can arrest him. At least get SOCO in here to see if there’s enough evidence for grounds.”

Alec put his hands on his hips and turned in a small circle. “Yeah… maybe.”

“I’m the meantime get a security system. Why don’t you have one? You’re a bloody cop!”

Alec shrugged noncommittally. “It’s Broadchurch,” he said, as if that actually meant anything resembling ‘safe’ anymore, and Ellie scoffed.

“Does Rose know?”

Alec shook his head. “No, I don’t want to tell her. She’s already terrified knowing he’s out, she’ll be a bloody wreck if she knew he was here. And with the baby…”

Ellie nodded in understanding as he drifted off. “What do you want me to do?”

 

They sat out on the terrace again as Brian and a few of the other SOCO members on his team made their way through the Tyler-Hardy’s sitting room.

“What happened to the ‘no secrets’ thing you and Rose had?” Ellie asked, studying the side of his face.

Alec’s brow immediately furrowed at that. “What do you mean, what happened to it?”

“You just said you aren’t going to tell her that someone—likely her murderer ex boyfriend—has broken into your house.”

Alec’s brow furrowed impossibly further—like his brain was short-circuiting at the very idea of keeping anything from Rose. “No,” he answered slowly, clearly replaying the scene in his head. “I said I don’t  _ want  _ to tell her, not that I’m not going to.”

Ellie tilted her head at that. “Is there a difference?”

He stared at her for a few moments.“I’m going to tell her,” he replied dryly.

“Why would you though? If it will only make her upset?” Ellie continued to argue.

A remark about her being the last person he should be taking marriage advice from died on his tongue—thankfully realising just how precisely  _ tactless _ it was (even more so than his usual comments). His mouth snapped shut as the repercussions of such a statement fluttered through his brain.

It didn’t occur to him until later that to Ellie it probably looked like she’d won the argument when that’s all he did before remaining silent.

SOCO left a bit later, unfortunately not sounding very hopeful with their findings, and Ellie helped him get the room back in order. “How long was he in prison then?” she asked once she’d thoroughly fluffed the sofa cushions back to their original shape.

“Fourteen years,” Alec answered grimly. “The minimum for a murder charge. He’d admitted it to me, and Rose was a key witness, but since he hadn’t given a full formal confession and I was the only arresting officer he still plead not-guilty.” Alec plopped down heavily on the sofa and Ellie mimicked him, settling Fred down in her lap. “He was offered a plea deal. We dropped all the other charges—which would have totaled a life sentence—if he pleaded guilty.”

Ellie wrinkled her nose. “Why would you do that?”

“So Rose wouldn’t have to testify.” Alec shrugged. 

Her brows knitted together at that. Rose seemed to her like the type who would want the truth to come out, and to serve justice to someone who had done her wrong.  _ Had she still loved this man even after he’d killed someone in front of her? _ “Why?” she asked bluntly. “What were the other charges?”

Alec only looked at her sideways though, and stood up to retreat into the kitchen and flip the kettle on.

Ellie sighed and followed him. “Shouldn’t you be at work?” she asked instead, watching him move around his kitchen. It was weird actually, seeing him being domestic—especially without Rose or Daisy around.

Alec gave a sort of noncommittal snort. “Are you telling me you’ve forgotten what Broadchurch Police Station is usually like?”

Ellie blinked slowly as that realisation settled in her gut, sitting there rather uncomfortably. That’s right, less than a year ago Broadchurch was a safe, easy town to live in. Her job had been  _ boring.  _ She shook her head incredulously, “That seems like such a long time ago now.”

 

Sharon Bishop sat across from Joe Miller 32 hours after he changed his plea to not-guilty while in the stand.

There was something about agreeing to a case wherein the defendant had already confessed. Maybe it was a pride thing—just proving that she could, that she really was as good as she said she was.

“Thanks for coming,” Joe started as Sharon flipped open the file her junior barrister, Abby Thompson, handed to her. “There’s a lot I need to tell you.”

“No,” Sharon interrupted before he could continue. “What you need to do is shut up. I’m looking at these transcripts and your interview, and you’ve done far too much talking already.” She looked up to him seriously. “As your new counsel, my advice is don't talk to anyone, don't discuss the case, keep your mouth shut. Understand?”

Joe nodded at her raised brow.

“Now, a few questions to start us off, get things straight… When you were arrested by DI Tyler-Hardy, was he alone? Did he have other officers with him?”

Joe shook his head, “Uh, he brought one of those guys in uniform. I don’t remember his name.”

“And how did he take you into custody?”

“There was a police car, other side of the field.”

“And you walked with them?” She paused as Joe nodded silently. “Did you talk to them then?”

“No. I started to, but he told me to wait.”

Sharon nodded slowly, they weren’t exactly the answers she was hoping for, but they weren’t terrible either. “Now, your wife worked alongside DI Tyler-Hardy. Had you met him outside of work?” 

“Yeah—he’d um, he’d been round for dinner a few times. Him and his wife and daughter. Our kids were mates, his daughter spent the night a few times. Also his wife was Tom’s teacher, and Ellie and her got on too.”

Sharon and Abby shared a significant look at that.

 

Ellie ended up taking the guest bedroom that night instead of driving all the way back to Devon. It was obvious too, that she had hoped Tom would show up and have to talk to her, but alas he had elected to stay with his aunt again.

Alec trotted down the stairs after wishing Daisy a good night to find his wife sitting cross-legged on the floor of their sitting room, staring at the new lock he’d just finished installing. He’d told her already what had happened, but that SOCO hadn’t thought they’d found any evidence it was Jimmy. He tilted his head and moved to sit down next to her, his joints cracking a bit in protest.

Rose leaned her head on his shoulder without looking up. “I keep replaying it,” she whispered.

“Don’t.”

Rose shook her head, July of 1996 flashing in front of her eyes.

 

_ “Rose, please don’t do this.” Mickey begged her as she continued shoving all of the stuff she could fit in to what little luggage she owned. _

_ Rose shook her head, a smirk playing on her lips in sharp contrast to the serious look her best mate was giving her. “You’re quitting school too,” she shot back easily. _

_ “Yeah, to run the shop. Not to chase after some shit guy—” _

_ “Yeah that would be news to me,” Rose snorted, interrupting him. _

_ Mickey rolled his eyes. “He’s no good for you,” he said, not for the first time. _

_ “He loves me,” Rose insisted again. “He says he loves me.” _

 

Rose pressed her forehead into her husband’s shoulder to stave off the headache. Wishing more than anything that she could just take some aspirin, her hand fell to her stomach, and she wrapped her arms around their growing baby protectively. “I’m so scared, Alec.”

“I know… me too,” he admitted quietly, pulling her closer to him.

She allowed him to hold her for a few minutes more as they sat in their concern, but finally she took a deep breath and changed the subject. “Jocelyn agreed to take the Latimer’s case,” she informed him.

“Right…” Alec’s brow furrowed. “Who’s Jocelyn again?”

Rose couldn’t help the giggle that built up at that, letting it out with a snort and burying her head in her daft husband’s shoulder. “Out neighbor,” she told him dryly, a smirk playing at her lips. “Apparently she was some big hot shot attorney and everyone in town but us knew it.”

“ _ Was? _ ” Alec asked, raising a brow.

Rose shrugged. “She agreed to come out of retirement. Called Beth a bit after Joe Miller’s barrister was on telly.”

“Joe Miller already has someone who will take his case?”

Rose pressed her lips together and studied him curiously. “You didn’t go to work at all today did you?”

Alec ran his hands through his hair sheepishly. “Well I did, but I came back a bit before lunch and…” he gestured vaguely to the new lock, and Rose nodded in understanding.

“Security company will be here tomorrow morning,” she told him distantly, her mind traveling to dark places again as they circled back around to their original topic.

Alec pulled her out of those thoughts as he pulled her back to him, placing a kiss to the top of her head. “Sounds like we should turn in then,” he said, moving to stand and help her up as well.

Rose nodded and allowed him to guide her up the stairs, even while in the back of her head she was reeling with worry.

 

The following morning Rose had Fred on her hip and was helping feed him while Ellie was getting ready, and Alec flipped bacon behind her. Daisy was still asleep upstairs, using Saturday morning to her full advantage.

Alec’s mobile rang just as Ellie entered the kitchen, tying her hair up. He squinted as Paul Coates lit up his screen. “Yeah?” he answered.

He started grabbing his things wildly as the vicar started talking, ignoring the perplexed looks coming from both of the women. “Yeah, I’ll be right there,” he ended the call abruptly and looked to Ellie as he was halfway to the door. “Are you coming?”

“Going where?” Ellie asked, sounding annoyed.

Alec just raised his brows in answer though, and it was more a challenge now than anything. She looked over to Rose helplessly, letting out a long-suffering sigh.

“Do you mind keeping Fred?”

Rose shook her head quickly, bouncing the one year old as she did. “Of course not, you two go—sounds urgent,” she replied, sending her husband a worried glance.

He tried to give her as reassuring a look as he could, but it probably wasn’t all that great. He rushed forward to kiss her goodbye before turning on his heel and sprinting back towards the door. “Come on, Miller!” he shouted, not bothering to shut the door behind him.

“Oh, I so have not missed that,” Ellie grumbled, giving Rose a significant look that she couldn’t help but giggle at. Ellie rolled her eyes and kissed her son goodbye before chasing after her old boss.

Alec peeled out of the drive, and Ellie squinted as he turned onto a familiar route. “This is the road to the church.”

“I know,” Alec answered gruffly.

“Why are we going to the church?”

Alec stayed stubbornly (though predictably) quiet as he pulled up to the entrance to the cemetery. An ambulance and a forensics vehicle were already there, and Paul Coates ran to meet them as they exited the car.

“Tell me they’re not going to do this,” Alec said as he slammed the door shut and Paul threw his hands up in exasperation. 

“They’ve got a court order,” Paul answered, shaking his head, and then looking confusedly over to “Ellie?” 

“Would somebody tell me what’s going on?” she begged as she chased after Alec and the vicar.

Paul glanced between Alec and Ellie in question, but when Alec didn’t look over he just assumed the fact that he’d brought her meant that it was okay he told her. “Joe’s legal team have requested a new autopsy on Danny’s body,” he explained. “It means an official exhumation.”

Ellie looked in horror to the top of the hill they were climbing and saw the white tent. “Oh God, no.”

When they reached the top Alec spotted the uniformed officer who was holding the court order. “Give me that,” he said as he snatched it out of her hands, walking past her towards the grave site, further than Ellie or Paul had jurisdiction.

Paul spotted the Latimers first, and rested his hand on Ellie’s shoulder to get her to turn.

“MY BOY IS IN THERE!” Mark shouted as they and their barristers marched up to them. “YOU! WHY CAN’T YOU LET HIM REST, EH?” He jabbed an accusatory finger at the forensics team.

Both him and Beth had tears streaming down their faces, and behind them Chloe stood in much the same state. “Alec…” Beth looked to him pleadingly, but he was powerless to stop this. She sobbed, and Chloe pulled her away from the scene.

“Do something, Paul,” Mark pleaded desperately.

“I’m sorry,” Paul shook his head helplessly, “I’m sorry.”

Mark tried weakly to run towards the tent, but he only made it about half a step before the vicar stepped in front of him and Nigel grabbed his shoulders.

Jocelyn and Ben glared over to where Joe’s legal team was standing, hands shoved in their pockets and faces devoid of any sympathy as they watched the scene play out.

Alec stepped back over to where Ellie stood off to the side, feeling wholly useless and completely prohibited from saying anything at all to the Latimer's. She hadn’t seen nor spoken to Beth since that first night after Joe had confessed, and she was forced to assume she either blamed her or just wasn’t ready to talk to her. She hoped for the latter, obviously.

“You all right?” Alec asked.

“No,” Ellie answered honestly.

Alec nodded in understanding and glanced up towards the top of the hill that would overlook the rest of Broadchurch. At its peak a figure of a man stood, and Alec walked slowly forwards as he spotted him.

Ellie followed his gaze, and squinted at the stranger who was very clearly watching them. “Who’s that?”

“That’s Jimmy Stone.” Alec practically spit the name

“You’re kidding.”

Alec shook his head, continuing to glare dangers towards the man. Ellie watched his profile as his jaw clenched with barely concealed rage. She’d never seen that much fire behind a man’s eyes before.

“What were those other charges?” she asked again, but Alec still refused to answer.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So excited to finally be able to share this! ❤︎ Please leave kudos and comments!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNINGS: panic attacks, stalking, domestic abuse (emotional/physical)

Rose walked back into her Sunday school classroom laden down with a number of bags full of crafting materials. She felt her mobile vibrating in her back pocket a couple of minutes ago, but she hadn’t had a free hand to answer. Dropping the bags rather unceremoniously onto the floor beside her desk she pulled her phone out to see three new notifications: a text from Daisy informing her that Tom had drunk the last of the milk, a missed call from an unknown number, and a voicemail from the same caller.

Furrowing her brow, she clicked the message and brought the speaker up to her ear to listen.

“Rose, it’s me,” a man’s voice said, and Rose’s entire body tensed up as her blood ran cold. “You should have answered. I want to hear your voice.”

There was a long pause, and Rose struggled to get air into her lungs as she silently prayed to wake up.

It went on though. “Listen…” Jimmy said, “I want you to know that I know what you did. And I forgive you. I’ve been thinking about you all this time… I’m close now. I’ll see you soon.”

Rose let out a broken sob as the message ended, and she collapsed onto the floor, pulling her knees up to her chest as pure unadulterated terror pulsed through her veins. She pressed her palms to her temples and her ears rang loudly, drowning out the sounds of her hyperventilating.

Minutes or hours later she managed to crawl forward and grab the phone she hadn’t realized had dropped and blindly find Alec’s name on her favourites list.

“Rose?” he asked by way of greeting, and the sound of his voice grounded her just slightly, enough to let her speak.

“Alec,” she whimpered, but was unable to get the rest of her sentence out.

“Rose? Rose what is it? What’s wrong?” Alec rambled out quickly and she could hear him grabbing his things, already on his way to her. “What’s happened?”

“He called me, Alec. He left a voice message and he said—” she cut herself off as the fear climbed back up her throat.

“I’ll be right there, Rose,” he assured her, and she tried to take a deep breath as she repeated those words in her head. “It’s all right. I promise you’re safe.”

Rose squeezed her eyes shut and tried to convinced herself that he was right. “Please please hurry,” she begged, glancing towards the window and her open classroom door, half convinced he would appear in their frames at any moment.

“Hey, breathe, love,” Alec spoke calmly though she could hear him running. “Just listen to my voice, yeah?”

Rose nodded even though he couldn’t see her.

“Everything will be okay. You’re safe. I will be there in a few minutes. No one is going to hurt you. You’re safe, I promise…” Alec continued on like that through the entire five (though it should have been ten) minute drive to the church, adding in what streets he was passing as he did, though Rose rarely made any noise to indicate she was hearing him at all.

He ran through the church at lightning speed, ending the call as soon as he reached her classroom and falling to sit beside her.

Rose curled into his chest instantly, and he knew enough by now to wrap his arms around her and hold her as tightly as he could until her breathing evened out. She sobbed into his shirt and pressed her ear against his heart, allowing the steady familiar rhythm to guide her back to reality, all the while he continued speaking reassurances.

Finally she sniffed and looked up to him through damp lashes. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

Alec shook his head quickly and leaned down to place a kiss to her hairline. “You have nothing to apologise for.”

“How did he get my number?”

“I don’t know, but we’ll change it.”

“He said he’s close and that he’ll see me soon.” The fear made itself well known again as it clawed at her chest. “Alec, what if—”

“No,” Alec cut off that train of thought before it could escalate into another panic attack, and he pulled her closer once more. “Where’s your mobile?”

Rose wrapped her arms around his waist and nodded to the device she’d dropped as soon as he’d run into the room. Alec picked it up and typed in her passcode quickly. He turned the volume down as low as it would go before muting, and covered the ear of hers that wasn’t pressed against his shirt just to be sure as he listened to the message.

His jaw clenched and he felt his anger flare. Instinctively he tightened his hold on his wife as he cast a wary glance towards the stained glass windows and held down the phone’s power button until it turned off completely.

 

Ellie glanced down as her mobile started ringing and pulled a face when she saw Alec’s name lighting up her screen. “What do you want?” she asked by way of greeting.

“What are you doing?”

“Why?”

“Miller.”

Ellie rolled her eyes. “I’m in my flat, in Devon,” she answered shortly. “Why?”

Alec lowered his voice for reasons she couldn’t even begin to fathom. “I need you to come keep Rose company?”

“I’m sorry?”

He groaned. “She got a phone call. From Jimmy. She’s sort of on edge and I don’t want to leave her home alone.”

“Then don’t?”

“I’m on duty.”

“You’re the boss.”

“I just ran out of a meeting with the new chief super,” Alec finally admitted and Ellie pressed her lips together to keep next witty remark she’d had lined up from tumbling out over that. Clearly, this was a lot more serious than she was giving it credit. “I have to get back,” he finished.

Ellie sighed and moved to grab her shoes and coat from the wardrobe. “Are you going to tell me this story or just continue expecting me to go along with all of this blindly?”

“It’s not mine to tell,” Alec repeated, and she rolled her eyes again, counting on the fact that he probably knew her well enough by now to interpret her silence as annoyance.

“I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

“Thank you—”

“No, don’t thank me,” Ellie cut him off. “It’s weird.” And with that she hung up.

 

As soon as Ellie pulled into their drive, Alec dashed out the door, not so much as sending a glance in her direction before he got into his own car and reversed out into the road.

Ellie shook her head, not even a little bit surprised at the rudeness, but still managing to find it stunning—his complete incompetence over normal human social customs. Sometimes she couldn’t even manage to convince herself he was human at all.

She stepped inside their house to find Rose rather furiously baking. “I left my glue gun at church,” she said by way of greeting (and possibly explanation?), and Ellie thought she’d never said anything so in-character before, and probably never will again.

“Well,” Ellie said, taking a seat at the breakfast bar, “baking sounds just as productive. Do you need any help?”

Rose looked up from her mixing bowl to give Ellie an odd look. “Did Alec tell you?” she asked instead of answering.

Ellie shook her head quickly. “No. Just said you got a call from your ex that put you a little on edge is all. He’s not much one for gossip, y’know,” she attempted to make a joke to try and soften the awkwardness of the situation he had put them in, but Rose just stared at her.

“Aren’t you going to ask?”

“Do you want me to?”

“No.”

“Then no.”

Rose pressed her lips together and nodded, sending her a grateful look that more than made up for the prevailing curiosity and being left in the dark. “Do you wanna put the baking cups in the pan?” she offered, handing them over.

 

Alec had his mobile glued to his hand as he walked back to the station from a call out, silently willing the chief super to have gone by the time he got back so that he could get back to Rose.

Those prayers flew out of his mind though when he glanced up to see Jimmy Stone standing a few metres ahead of him. All his worry was replaced instantly with rage at the sight of him.

“Get out of here,” he growled as he stormed over to him, glaring daggers and towering over him by nearly a foot.

“I ain’t breaking the law,” Jimmy replied smugly. “There ain’t nothin’ in my parole says I have to stay in London.”

“Breaking and entering is.”

Jimmy didn’t miss the trick though. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said with a straight face.

“What are you playing at?”Alec bit out.

“I just wanna see Rose.”

“She doesn’t want to see you.”

“Says you. If she didn’t love me then how come she wouldn’t testify against me, huh? Sounds to me like you’s got her brainwashed.”

It took everything in Alec to unclench his fist before he could punch the walking piece of shit in two. “We’ll get a restraining order.”

“Nah you won’t., Jimmy had that irritating smug look on him. “I did my research, didn’ I? Your case is goin’ to trial. You can’t risk lookin’ bad—raising questions.”

It was true. Trials put everyone’s lives under a microscope, including his and Rose’s. There’s not a doubt in his mind that Joe’s legal team wouldn't catch word of it and drag Rose and her past into it. 

Jimmy took Alec’s silence as victory. “Now where is she? Or do I have to follow you around all day.”

“Stalking is certainly against your parole. And you can bet your arse that if you even so much as step a toe out of line I will be there.” Alec stepped closer so that Jimmy had to tilt his head up in order to see him. “And this time I will make damn sure you will never see daylight again.”

Jimmy simply shrugged before shoving his hands in his pockets and sauntering away.

 

Rose opened the electricity bill absently, staring off into space, unable to keep her mind from wandering.

… 

_ [February, 1997] _

Rose stared down at the fifth overdue bill that year and yet another eviction notice. “I can get a job—” she started.

“No,” Jimmy cut her off gruffly, not looking up from the cable television they were stealing. “The band’s gonna get a gig. It’s gonna be fine.”

“But in the meantime-”

“I said no!” Jimmy suddenly shouted at her, making Rose jump and step back, her foot landing on a carelessly discarded wrap of cocaine—where the last gig’s money had gone to. He stood up then, shoving her roughly to the side to pick up the drugs. “What you think you can just step on my things now?”

Rose shook her head quickly. “No, no, I’m sorry. I didn’t see it—”

“No you never see anything do you?” he spit. “You’re just some stupid worthless chav-”

“I’m sorry!” Rose tried cutting off his insults.

“Don’t interrupt me when I’m talking!” Jimmy roared, grabbing her forcefully by the arm. “You’d still be in the estates if it wasn’t for me!”

“I know.”

“A prostitute. That’s all you’d be good for,” he growled. “If anyone would be stupid enough to pay for a slag like you.”

Rose nodded as tears ran down her cheeks. She attempted to pull her arm away, but his grip tightened and she winced as she could feel the bruises forming.

Jimmy pushed her away and she made a small noise as she stumbled over the table and landed on the floor. She looked up to him towering over her, feeling small. He only shook his head like she was the most disgusting thing he’d ever seen.

But that night he apologised. Said it was the beer and the stress getting to him.

And she forgave him. She always forgave him.

 

…

“Rose!” Ellie shouted, and Rose’s head snapped up as she was brought back to the present.

“What? Yeah. Sorry.” Rose shook her head as if trying to physically dispel the intrusive thoughts from her brain.

Ellie’s brow knit together. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

Rose could feel her chest tightening and she hugged her pregnant belly on impulse, wildly attempting to shield her baby from the war zone that was her body at the moment. She used that thought though in order to help herself calm down.

Her filter was pretty much completely gone now though, something Ellie had noticed when she’d randomly decided to start analysing certain Bible passages and openly admitting to feelings of uncertainty concerning organised religion. “Have you got a therapist?” she asked now suddenly, seemingly with no indication that she realised that might be an intrusive question.

Ellie pulled her chin back and tried to remind herself not be offended. She was quite sure Beth would have been much better equipped to help Rose out right now—what with her being her best friend and also being pregnant—but, Ellie amended, if they were actually concerned with safety, a nine-months pregnant woman probably wouldn’t be as well equipped at handling a crazy murderer ex-boyfriend.

“Obviously,” she finally settled on.

Rose nodded. “Are they any good?”

“She’s all right.” Ellie couldn’t help sounding cagey.

Rose pressed her lips together and didn’t reply before wandering into her front room and sitting down cross-legged on the sofa, staring unseeingly at the blank television screen.

Ellie studied her as she started mindlessly ringing her fingers around her wrist in a way that Ellie has only ever seen a person do once before. She swallowed thickly, a horrible sinking feeling settling in her gut at the sight.

To be fair, she was sure Alec had really only expected her to just keep Rose feeling safe with her presence, but he probably also hoped she could keep her sane as well.

It was so strange though, seeing Rose like this. She had always been so bright and resilient, hopeful in the face of so much pain and suffering. The  _ rose  _ in the thorn bush that had been the last few months. But now it seemed Ellie was seeing her roots originated in darker places.

She let out a long breath and sat down heavily beside her. “I can’t pretend to know what you’re going through right now,” she started, “but I guess I can tell you what I am.”

Rose looked over to her at that, finally seeming to be giving her her full attention. 

“I just feel really guilty all the time,” Ellie admitted, suddenly willing to bare her own soul if it meant Rose could get out of her head for a while. “I keep telling myself I should have seen it. I should have been able to stop it happening.”

Rose opened her mouth to no doubt argue with her, but Ellie barreled through.

“And I think Beth thinks the same because she doesn’t talk to me. So does Tom. I’ve lost my husband, my son, my friends, my house, my  _ home, _ ” she made a vague gesture indicating Broadchurch, “my entire life. Everything I had and worked for. Everything I’ve ever known was taken away from me because I trusted someone I shouldn’t have.” She looked over to Rose at this. “And I just can’t stop asking myself why.”

Rose was silent for a few moments, and then finally she took a deep breath, and stared at the place where the wall met the ceiling as she spoke. “I know you keep asking yourself how you didn’t see it. Keep thinking you could’ve done something to stop it happening… I do too. Even still after all this time I’ll blame myself for Mickey’s death. Beat myself up for not leaving Jimmy the first time he hit me.”

The information was technically new, but Ellie found herself surprisingly unsurprised to find out Jimmy Stone had been abusive. Though she suspected it went further than that as well.

Rose went on, “But then I think, what if I hadn’t met Alec? Or had Daisy? Or if I hadn’t been here to help Beth and you through all of this…” she sighed. “There’s something I told Alec, a little while after we met, something I still have to tell myself all the time: everything happens for a reason. Including—especially—the bad things.”

Ellie shook her head. “What’s the reason for all this?”

“Sometimes it takes a while to find it,” Rose sighed. “But I can already name a few. You got Tom and Fred out of it, yeah? Wouldn’t trade them for the world would you?”

“Of course not.”

Rose nodded. “And maybe we’re all meant to be leaning something from Dan’s death. How to be a good parent… a good spouse… not to take the people we love for granted…” She drifted off at the displeased look Ellie was giving her. “Look I’m not saying I know what it is, or that it’s justified. And if I was in charge of the universe it’s certainly not how I would have gone about things,  _ but  _ maybe that’s the point. We can’t know why. We just have to keep going.”

Ellie stared at her for a few moments. It figured that the thing to help Rose was to give her the opportunity to help someone else. And somehow in the middle of her own trauma she could stamp a higher meaning on all of their suffering and make it all feel more manageable. “It sounds like you could take a bit of your own advice right now,” she said quietly.

Rose laughed suddenly at that, and pulled chuckles out of Ellie as well. “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” she agreed.

“We could do it together,” Ellie offered.

 

Beth let her fingers hover over the keyboard of her mobile as she read the message from Rose.

Some things had come up and she couldn’t make it for the get-together they were having. Beth had asked if everything was okay, and if she should come over, but Rose had informed her that Ellie was already with her.

She tried very hard not to feel like she was being betrayed. Rose had explained to her multiple times already that Ellie hadn’t known, that she would have done something, and that she was struggling a lot right now. And the last thing Beth expected was for Rose to ignore anyone who might need help.

She’d agreed to not give Ellie any grief, but she also still couldn’t bring herself to even look at the woman. Some selfish part of her wished Rose would join with her in that.

That same part of her was shouting that Rose should be with  _ her _ now, considering everything that was going on—that  _ her _ grief far outweighed Ellie’s.

She had sense enough not to say that, but not enough composure to think of anything else to send in reply, so she clicked the screen off and wandered into the kitchen where she could just overhear the conversation Paul, Maggie, and Olly were having in the corner.

“When the trial starts tomorrow, we'll be running a live blog,” Olly spoke excitedly. “There's a dedicated page on the Echo website and I will be posting hour by hour coverage of the trial.”

“Try not to sound like you're enjoying it too much,” Maggie reprimanded him.

“I'm not apologising for what we do,” Olly answered stubbornly.

Paul cut in then before Maggie could reply to that. “You don't sound so keen,” he observed mildly, though his brow was furrowed in curiosity.

“I assess things once the dust’s settled,” Maggie explained, sounded wisened with experience. “Write up the bigger picture.”

“By which time everyone has moved on,” Olly huffed.

She gave him a challenging look. “I'm still your boss, petal,” she reminded him, “blog or no blog.”

There was a knock on the door then, and Beth hurried to join Mark in answering it. “Hi, Jocelyn,” she said once they saw their barrister standing there. “Thanks for coming.”

“I had a message you needed to see me,” she said, stepping through the threshold, looking worried.

“Yeah,” Beth nodded and lead her through to the front room as she shouted to the rest of their friends. “Everyone! Jocelyn's here!”

“—No,” Jocelyn cut in, sounding mortified.

Beth read her expression quickly, realising she’s done something wrong. “Oh, sorry… It just sort of mushroomed. We wanted to thank everyone for being witnesses and giving evidence for Danny. And I just thought you could clue us in on what to expect…”

“It's inappropriate. I shouldn't be here. You shouldn't have asked me.”

“We didn't know,” Beth answered quietly.

“We haven't done this before,” Mark added, as if that needed saying. “Sorry.”

Jocelyn let out a long breath, sharing a knowing look with Ben Haywood before stepping forward to address the crowd. “A criminal trial is a detailed, unpredictable process. There are no guarantees. We have a difficult task ahead. If you've been called, don't confer on your evidence. And never lie. Lies get exposed in court.”

“You're fine there,” Beth let out. “None of us have got anything left to hide.”

“I'll do everything I can to secure a conviction but it's not just down to me. It's on everyone in this room. Everyone in this town.” She set them all with a serious look and then turned back towards the door. “Now, I really shouldn't be here,” she said, and hurried out.

After only a beat Maggie chased after her.

As Beth stared at the closed door and all around her her guests fell back into their conversations, that small part in the back of her mind whispered that Rose would have warned her against inviting Jocelyn.

 

“I can’t believe we have to be here until we give evidence,” Ellie complained as she downed her third cup of coffee on the first morning of the trial. She’d driven back to Devon last night in lieu of staying in the Tyler-Hardy’s guest bedroom, and though she appreciated having full use of her bathroom, she’d hadn’t been afforded much in the way of sleep. “It could be days,” she went on and then realised Alec wasn’t actually looking at her. “Are you listening to me?”

“Jimmy Stone approached me yesterday,” he informed her.

Ellie choked on her coffee. “Sorry, what?”

“Said he was looking for Rose. That he wasn’t gonna stop until he saw her.”

“Christ.” Ellie glanced down. They were sat at a table on the mezzanine and she could just see Rose talking with Beth and the rest of the Latimers below them. “Have you told her?”

Alec nodded.

“Right… restraining order?” she offered. “File a complaint with his parole for stalking?”

“She’s worried it could jeopardise the trial if Joe’s legal team got word—which they would—and they could drag that whole mess into this.”

Ellie squinted at that. “What’s Rose’s past have to do with any of this? What’s it matter?”

“It all matters now,” Alec answered ominously, and Ellie pulled a face and sat back in her chair when he didn’t go on.

 

Beth took a deep breath as she turned to face the courtroom from her place on the witness stand. “When was the last time you saw your son alive?” Jocelyn asked.

“I looked in on him around nine that night. We'd all had tea together just after six. Mark had gone out. Me and Chloe were watching telly. Danny was in his bedroom. He had music on,” Beth listed through the events as she remembered practicing with Jocelyn the day before. “I told him he had till half nine, then he had to go to bed.”

“And Danny gave no indication that he would be meeting anyone later in the night?”

“No. Nothing.” Beth shook her head. “There was nothing to make me think… I replay that moment every day…  Shutting the door on him, all the things I didn't ask. How it would have been different if I'd been a better parent…”

“Thank you, Mrs Latimer. Stay where you are, please.” She gave her an encouraging smile before taking her seat.

Sharon stood up and placed her notes on the desk podium in front of her. “As a mum myself, I know it must be difficult. I'll keep it short.”

Beth nodded, not wholly convinced the length of time this would take would make it any easier. 

Sharon proved that thought a second later when she asked, “How was your marriage at the time of Danny's death?”

Beth tried not to glare at her, but probably failed. “Fine,” she answered shortly.

“Had you or your husband ever had an affair?” she pressed.

Beth tensed. “What's that got to do with anything?” She turned towards the judge. “Can she ask that?”

“Yes, she can. And the court needs you to answer.”

There was a long silence where Beth looked over to Mark and Chloe, and a number of her other friends as they all knew what would be said next. “My husband slept with Becca Fisher. She owns the Traders Hotel.”

“Did Danny know about it?”

“Yes. I found out later that he did.”

“Did you ever hit Danny?”

“No.”

“Did your husband?”

Beth clenched her jaw.

“Mrs Latimer?”

“What's going on? Who's on trial here?”

“You need to answer the question,” the judge cut in.

Beth lost what little sense of calm she had been managing to hold on to. “Is it not enough that my son was murdered by that man there, and that I lost my mum three months back because she was broken by this? Now I've got to stand here while you ask me about things that aren't connected?”

“Mrs Latimer, did your husband Mark ever hit Danny?”

“Once. It was only once!”

Sharon threw her hands up. “Thank you.”

Jocelyn stood up quickly. “I’d like to re-examine, My Lady.”

The judge nodded, and Beth tried to even out her breathing while Jocelyn asked her next question.

“Would you say your husband was a good father, Mrs Latimer?”

Beth nodded quickly. “He was the best,” she said, trying not to cry. “They played football out in the yard nearly every day in the Summers, he went to all Danny’s track meets, drove him to his Sea Brigade meetings. With Chloe as well. He loves our kids. He loved Danny—more than anything.”

Jocelyn nodded, giving Beth a little secret smile as she did. “No further questions, My Lady.”

Sharon did not wish to re-examine, and so finally Beth was released.

Alec was called in next, and Rose gave him a small encouraging nod as he briefly made eye contact with her before turning to Jocelyn.

He spoke to the jury as he took them through the events of the arrest. The phone turning on, calling officer Phil, finding Joe with the phone, and the subsequent confession.

“I’d like to play for the jury the audio recording of Mr Miller’s confession,” Jocelyn said, and the judge nodded towards the bailiff who brought forth the evidence bag.

It was… a lot. And Alec silently sent thanks to God that Ellie wasn’t there and she wasn’t being forced to listen to her husband explain in excruciating detail his meetings with Danny, their fight, strangling the boy, and putting his body in a boat to dump on the beach.

It almost made it hard to believe when Sharon stood up to begin defending her client. How any one could defend it, or even  _ want  _ to defend it, seemed an evil thing.

“How was your health at the time of the arrest, DI Tyler-Hardy?” she began, as if it wasn’t a 180° turn from what they’d just listened to. As if Beth, Chloe, and Mark weren’t all currently sobbing into each other’s shoulders a mere three metres away from them. As if the jury wasn’t currently wiping stay tears from their eyes as they sent dirty looks in Joe’s direction.

Alec sighed and continued speaking to the jury instead of to the barristers who already knew the answers. “I had a heart condition. Arrhythmia. I’d discharged myself from the hospital the previous day because I knew I was close to finishing the case.”

“Is heart arrhythmia a fatal condition?”

“It can be. It wasn’t for me.”

“How did your chief supervisor react when she’d found out about your diagnosis?”

He let out a long breath. “I was sent to the medical examiner, and given 24 hours to clear my desk.”

“You were declared unfit for duty.”

“Medically,” Alec corrected, and Sharon threw her hands up.

“You were under pressure to close this case,” she accused him.

“There’s always pressure to catch a killer,” he threw right back, furrowing his brow a bit—mostly for the effect.

“Hadn't you  _ just _ been labelled Britain's worst cop by the national press?”

Jocelyn jumped up before Alec could even begin to wonder what second rate tabloid journalists at one paper had to do with anything. “Are we letting the media judge this trial? Or are we sticking to facts?” she demanded of the judge.

“Stick with the events of the arrest, Ms Bishop.”

Sharon threw her hands up again in mock-surrender, and the movement was beginning to annoy a number of the people in the room, not excluding Alec. “DI Tyler-Hardy, how well do you know the defendant, Mr Miller?”

“He is the husband of my former Detective Sergeant.”

“He was more than that, DI Hardy—”

“ _ Tyler- _ Hardy,” Alec interrupted, correcting her mostly out of sheer impulse more than anything, but he might not have done if Jocelyn had made the same mistake. Sharon paused, raising her brows at him like she expected  _ him _ to apologise. He stood his ground though. “I took my wife’s name for a reason. I’d appreciate if you’d respect her by not neglecting it.”

Jocelyn and Ben both concealed their amused smirks by keeping their heads down, while Sharon opened and closed her mouth a few times in utter bewilderment. A few of the jury members took notes (on what, Alec had no clue), and on the other side of the room Rose hid her face in her hands.

“My apologies, DI  _ Tyler _ -Hardy,” she amended, and then picked her head up higher again. “Though I’m glad you brought up your wife. She knew Mr Miller well, did she not?”

“I wouldn’t say  _ well, _ ” Alec looked to Rose in question and she gave a small nod of agreement. “Our daughter was friends with his son, and she teaches at their school.”

“Had you or your family ever been to Mr Miller’s house?”

“We’d been to dinner a few times, and Daisy would stay over every now and then.”

“You trusted Mr Miller to take care of your daughter?”

“At the time. I didn’t know I had a reason not to.”

“And in all that time you spent with Mr Miller, you never once suspected that he’d had anything to do with Daniel Latimer’s death?”

Alec turned back to the jury at this. “I’d never thought to question Mr Miller, no. As was stated in his confession, he’d had, up until that point, an alibi in his wife, who I worked closely with. I did begin to suspect him after we’d found the emails on Mr Miller’s computer.”

“Which,” the judge spoke up just as Sharon was opening her mouth to continue, “we will get to next time. Court is dismissed until tomorrow.” She banged her gavel in emphasis, and everyone rose to their feet as she exited through to her chambers.

 

The Latimer's left rather quickly after that, only sparing time for quick goodbyes before loading back into the plumbers van and heading back to Broadchurch. Ellie didn’t stay for much longer, saying something about picking up Fred before leaving as well. But Rose and Alec stuck around to talk to Jocelyn and Ben.

“That went really well,” Jocelyn said matter of factly. 

“Really?” Rose asked. “Even the whole ‘ _ Tyler’  _ thing?”

Both Ben and Jocelyn laughed at that. “Definitely,” Ben assured them both. “It humanised him. Gave the jury something to like, and a reason to think him trustworthy.” He tilted his head at Alec. “Until that they were practically falling asleep every time you spoke, mate. I’d never seen someone so dully explain to a jury that they’d nearly died chasing down a killer.”

Alec grumbled something unintelligible under his breath, and Rose patted his arm consolingly.

“It was weird,” Rose went on, “the things she was bringing up. It all seemed irrelevant, and maybe she plans on getting to the point tomorrow but…” she drifted off in such a way that indicated she was unconvinced.

“That’s how Sharon Bishop works,” Jocelyn explained. “She likes to muddy the water. Make things seem unclear by throwing around disjointed facts and drawing lines between disconnected events.”

“And that works?” 

Jocelyn sighed. “She’s gotten more than a few of her clients off—yes, many of whom had confessed.”

Rose didn’t know how to respond to that, but was saved from having to as her mobile vibrated. “Oh fuck,” she let out as she read the message and looked up to her husband. “Beth’s gone into labor.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comments and kudos much appreciated ❤︎


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNINGS: panic attacks, vomiting, stalking, physical/emotion abuse, non-graphic sexual assault

In the morning Beth had a new beautiful baby girl called Elizabeth, and was dead-set on going to court anyway. Mark knew better than to try and argue with her, but Rose had no such qualms with telling her best friend she was absolutely mad.

“Aren’t you in pain?” Rose asked incredulously over the phone, earning dual furrowed brows from Alec and Daisy across from her which she shook her head at.

“I’m going,” Beth insisted, “even if it means being dosed up on painkillers.”

The  _ ‘is it really worth it?’  _ died on her lips, and Rose took a deep breath in order to regain her composure before speaking again. “Okay, well… I’ll see you all there then, and congratulations again, Beth. I’m really happy for you.”

They hung up shortly thereafter and both Alec and Daisy were staring at her with wide-eyes as if  _ she _ was the one going to court a few hours after giving birth. “She’s  _ going? _ ” Alec spoke for both of them.

Rose shrugged. “You know as well as I do there’s no arguing with Beth about anything—especially when it comes to this. She still isn’t even speaking to Ellie.”

Alec gave a disgruntled expression at the reminder, making a low sound of acquiesce as he did.

Daisy rolled her eyes. “Tom’s getting worse too,” she informed her parents. “Some kid at school was telling him his dad could be innocent and now he’s acting all weird again.”

The noise Alec made at that can only be described as unholy. “Surely Tom’s got a good enough head on him not to listen that rubbish?”

Daisy shrugged noncommittally and gave her father the sort of look that meant he wasn’t. A long sort of resignedly thoughtful few moments passed, until finally Rose broke the silence by clasping her hands together.

“All right,” she said, “off to school with you miss.”

The three of them began putting their dishes in the sink and grabbing their coats and things. “Are you sure you shouldn’t be going to school also?” Alec asked his wife as they started out the door, locking it carefully behind him.

Rose rolled her eyes. “It’s only a week, and I’ve got enough vacations,” she reminded him—not for the first time. “Besides, they all have their projects. The only thing the substitute has to do is tell them to work.”

 

Alec had to finish giving his testimony at the start of court that morning, and it began with the bailiff handing him a marked evidence bag.

“Is that the phone the defendant was holding on the day you arrested him?” Jocelyn asked.

“Yes,” Alec answered to the jury. “It belonged to Danny Latimer. Danny had two phones. This one was given to him by Mr Miller.”

“And what did you discover from the call history on that phone?”

“Only one number had ever called or sent texts to Danny's phone. A mobile number belonging to Mr Miller.”

“When you took possession of Mr Miller's computer, did you find further evidence of communication between the defendant and Danny Latimer?”

“We found an email account under a false name. Only used to send emails to Danny.”

The bailiff came forward then and gave Alec a thick packet of papers. “You're being handed an exhibit,” Jocelyn explained. “Exhibit MJC735 from your jury bundles. Could you confirm that these are printouts of the emails sent from this account?”

Alec scanned the first few lines quickly before nodding in confirmation. “I can.”

“And would you read the email sent to Danny Latimer on the 29th of May?”

He flipped to it. “‘Great seeing you last night. Sorry things aren't going well at home. Wanna meet again Thursday? It can stay between us.’”

“And on the 25th of June, from Danny to the defendant?”

“‘Why does nobody understand me like you do? Have a great holiday. I'll miss you.’”

“And can you confirm that it was in fact Mr Miller and his family who were going on holiday on the 25th of June?”

“Yes, I can.”

Jocelyn nodded politely. “Thank you,” she said before sitting down.

Sharon stood up rather dramatically, throwing down her own copy of the emails and throwing her hip out slightly as she looked up to Alec. “And the transcript of 16 May, please,” she requested, sounding bored.

Alec found the date and bit back a sigh as he scanned the message. He paused for a moment before reading, steeling himself to keep from looking over to Mark. “‘I know your dad will be sorry for hitting you,’” he read reluctantly. “‘You can talk to me any time.’”

A number of the jurors circled the message in their bundles, and Sharon looked quite pleased with herself as she went on. “What evidence do you have to prove that Mr Miller was using his phone at the time the calls and messages were sent?”

“As I stated earlier, they were sent from his private number. And, as you heard, he confessed to being in frequent, secret contact with Danny for months leading up to his death. Which included texting and emailing.”

Sharon didn’t back down though, and she raised her brows in challenge. “Could someone else have picked up the phone and used it?”

Alec really should have gotten a medal for not rolling his eyes at that. He shifted his body away from her again to answer to the jury. “Phone mast records have placed the phone at Mr Miller's house,” he informed them, attempting to inject into his voice the reason which they all needed to possess in order to realise how insane this woman was.

“The computer with the email account used to correspond with Danny, was that a private computer?” the barrister went on as if he hadn’t just thoroughly disproven her attempt to unpin these messages from Joe Miller.

“It was Mr Miller's home computer.”

“It was the  _ family _ computer, wasn't it?” she corrected sternly.

“Yes.” Alec just barely managed to keep the question mark from his tone.

“Was it password protected?”

“No, but we know that Mr Miller was the main user of the computer.”

“But not the  _ sole _ user because it was the family computer. Accessible to anyone who lived in or visited the house—”

“Well, I doubt the baby used it,” Alec interjected.

The judge leveled him with a look. “I'm not keen on sarcasm, DI Tyler-Hardy. Stick to the facts, please.”

_ She should tell the barrister to stick to the facts, _ Alec grumbled in his head. Out loud he said “Of course, my lady,” but took note of the smattering of amused smirks from the jury box.

Sharon went on from where he’d cut her off. “Mr Miller's wife, DS Ellie Miller, an investigating officer, also had access to the computer long before it was seized, didn't she?”

“Yes, but—”

She raised her voice as she cut him off now. “So anyone living in that house, including Mr Miller's wife, your colleague, would have been able to use the computer right up until the time of Mr Miller's arrest. Yes or no?”

Alec’s jaw twitched. “Yes.”

“Thank you. No further questions, my lady.”

 

They went on lunch a few hours later, giving Alec plenty of time to stew in anger as Sharon continued to go with the ‘Ellie framed Joe’ narrative.

Ellie caught up to him as he marched angrily out of the doors. “Those barristers,” he complained loudly, “Who are they? They've never done anything of worth. They just stand there sniping.”

Ellie pulled her chin back at that as she chased him down the corridors. “What's been going on?”

“The whole bloody system stinks,” he went on righteously. “This is how people like Jimmy Stone get let off, while decent people get treated like shit having aspersions cast on them.

“Aspersions about who?” Ellie asked, perplexed, and then glared at him as he stayed silent. “Tell me,” she insisted.

“I can't,” he answered, having the decency to sound annoyed and apologetic. “Not until you've given evidence.”

“Shut up, then. You're making me nervous.”

 

She was made to sit in her nervousness as well, as still hours passed before she was called. Even bloody Officer Phil got called in before her. But when they did finally show up, Ellie wondered why she’d been wishing the time away.

There were a lot of questions about what Joe knew about forensics from working as a paramedic, their marriage in general, as well as their relationship with the Latimers.

“Did you at any time suspect that your husband was involved in the killing of Danny?” Jocelyn asked finally.

“I didn't, no.” Ellie answered truthfully, injecting as much sincerity into her voice as any human being could possibly manage, and glancing over to Beth on impulse as she did. “I wish I had.” 

“Thank you, PC Miller,” Jocelyn concluded, looking at her kindly now. “I understand how difficult this must be for you.”

“It is,” Ellie nodded, her voice breaking. “It’s horrific.”

Jocelyn sat down, and a second later Sharon ejected herself out of her seat, flinging her file forcefully down in front of her in sharp juxtaposition from Jocelyn’s quiet sympathetic tone. “How was your sex life, PC Miller?”

Ellie’s lip curled. “I don't know, normal,” she answered curtly. “How would you describe yours?”

“Not frequent enough, to be honest. But I'm not in the box.”

“ _ Quite, _ Miss Bishop,” the judge interrupted pointedly.

She put her hands up in surrender and went on. “Did you engage in S&M? Bondage? Torture fantasies? Violent role play?”

“No, nothing like that.”

“Did your husband use pornography?”

“No, not that I know of. Apart from one time his mate gave him a DVD. We watched it together and we mostly laughed through it.”

“Did it involve children?”

“No.”

“Gay pornography?”

“No.”

“Did he show a predilection for images of children?”

“Not to my knowledge.”

“Did you either as a wife or a police officer ever discover images of children in your husband's possession?”

“No.”

Sharon nodded, as if she were pleased with these answers, and Ellie found that fact exceptionally grating. “Now, would you say that you were a good police officer?”

Ellie’s jaw clenched. “I get the job done.”

“I think you're being modest. Until recently, you'd been on a rather strong career path, hadn't you?”

“I did my best.”

“And yet as a police officer, you didn't detect any suspicious behaviour from your husband?”

“None.”

Again, Sharon smiled slightly and sent the jury a significant sort of look that set Ellie’s teeth on edge. She flipped a page in her file. “Did you take a sleeping pill on the night of Danny Latimer's death? 

“Yes, I get terrible jet lag. I have them prescribed.”

“You didn't wake up until the next morning, is that correct?”

“That's right.”

“So as far as you were concerned, the next morning he'd been there all night?”

“That's what I thought at the time and it turns out not to have been true. Joe knew I'd taken the pills. He planned to meet Danny accordingly, as he admitted on tape—”

“Thank you, PC Miller,” Sharon spoke over her reminder to the jury of the confession. She pressed her lips together, appearing to think for a few moment until finally she said, “When did you and DI Hardy first start having an affair?”

Ellie didn’t even have time to get out the ‘what?’ on the tip of her tongue, nor did Jocelyn have time to object, before they were both distracted by Rose letting out a loud surprised snort, and all heads in the courtroom turned to look at her as she attempted stifle her amusement at the suggestion.

All heads except one that is, which was was of her husband, who looked so completely and wholeheartedly confused by the statement. Like his brain had short circuited and failed to reconnect upon attempting to process the thought.

The look only proved to amuse Rose further, and all eyes flickered between the two of them. Including Sharon Bishop, who in 15 years of accusing witnesses of having affairs, had never once had one of them actually  _ laugh. _

Jocelyn, meanwhile, took great pleasure in Sharon’s discomfort, and made a mental note to buy Rose a drink for it once she wasn’t pregnant. Sharon’s method of defense required cynicism, and a firm belief in the horridity of people. It was her go-to move to accuse key witnesses of having motivations related to extramarital affairs, and Jocelyn had been secretly hoping she would attempt to use it on the Tyler-Hardy’s.

She wasn’t from Broadchurch. She had no idea.

All of this thought processing happened in the span of about six seconds before the judge was saying, “Order, Mrs Tyler-Hardy, lest you be removed from my courtroom.”

“Sorry, My Lady,” Rose apologised quickly, but she was still smirking slightly, and Alec was looking at her like she was some sort goddess for her ability to diminish that tension before it could have even properly formed.  _ God, he loved her so much. _

Sharon looked back over to Ellie, looking lost, and Ellie remembered that she did still actually have to answer the question. “Uh, no. Never had an affair, with DI Tyler-Hardy or anyone else for that matter. But especially not with him. I think he’s actually incapable of processing the existence of any woman other than his wife as anything other than another human with whom he has to attempt to navigate normal social interactions with.”

This earned a few more muffled snorts from the public as they had all met Alec and knew what she was saying, as well as a couple from the jury, as they had apparently picked up on Alec’s obvious lack of social awareness and complete and utter devotion to his wife.

Sharon cleared her throat. “Right, uh…” She looked back up to her. “How  _ would _ you describe your relationship with DI Tyler-Hardy?”

Ellie pressed her lips together. “Strictly professional,” she said automatically, because that seemed like the right answer. But still it rang untrue to her own ears so she went on. “Only I think now he’s probably my best friend,” she admitted, determinedly not making eye contact with anyone in the room. “I haven’t got very many of those left.”

And just like that, Ellie successfully gained sympathy from the jury.

 

“It’s my sister’s go in the morning,” Ellie said rather dreadfully over dinner. Somehow Alec and Rose had convinced her to come over. She knew in the back of her mind that it was because they knew she probably wouldn’t eat otherwise, and that fact made her somehow feel both grateful and annoyed.

“She’ll do fine,” Alec assured her.

Ellie snorted, “Have you ever actually met my sister?”

He squinted at her, and it took him a second to realise she was being sarcastic. “Complicated relationship, is it?”

“You could say that, yeah,” she sighed. “Aren’t all sibling relationships though? —Oh I don’t know why I’m asking you, it’s not like you’d know.” 

Alec’s eyes widened slightly at that as his brow knit together, and next to him Rose failed to conceal a surprised giggle behind a slice of bread.

Ellie’s eyes flickered between them. “Oh you’re kidding me.”

“Have I not mentioned—?”

“No, no you haven’t, actually,” Ellie bit out irritably, running through every single time she’d complained about her sister to him, or worse: outright asked him if he had any family. He’d given her so many stoney silences she’d assumed he was an orphan! “What is it then, sister or brother? If you say sister I swear to God.”

Alec coughed awkwardly while Rose continued to look like she was thoroughly enjoying herself. “Twin sister, actually.” His voice was just an octave too high.

Ellie’s eyes flared angrily. “You absolute—” she picked up her bread and tossed it at his head. 

“Oi!”

“ _ Why _ didn’t you ever tell me?”

“It never came up!”

“Like hell it never came up!” she shouted right back. “In front of God and everybody I say ‘he’s my best friend’ like an absolute  _ dunce _ and he doesn’t even bother to  _ tell me— _ ”

“It’s complicated!”

“Oh really? How’s that?”

Alec pursed his lips as he realised he’d set himself up. He glanced over to Rose in a silent plea for help, but she just smirked amusedly and leaned forward with her elbow on the table. “Yeah Alec, how  _ is  _ it complicated?” she reiterated unnecessarily. 

_ Bloody minx. _ Alec swallowed thickly. “She’s uh… she lives in Chiswick?” he said lamely.

Ellie’s elbows landed sharply on the table as she allowed her head to fall into her hands with a loud groan. “You’re insufferable,” she muttered as Rose cackled.

“I know,” Alec sighed.

Ellie’s face reappeared suddenly at that, and she was grinning now, in the sort of way that made Alec squirm uncomfortably. She had the advantage now. “What’s her name?”

“Donna.”

“Is she married?”

“Yes.”

“Kids?”

“No.”

“Are you close?”

Alec’s jaw clenched stubbornly, and Ellie raised her brows in challenge. He’d only answered those three questions because he felt guilty, and it was easy because they were impersonal facts. She was pushing her luck now, she knew.

Rose rolled her eyes, however. “They call each other every Wednesday evening,” she informed her.

“Aww,  _ how sweet, _ ” Ellie mocked him.

The look he gave his wife was nothing short of betrayed, but Rose just laughed and patted his arm consolingly. “When’s the last time you texted her, dear?”

Alec grumbled something unintelligible under his breath, and Ellie sat forward. “Sorry, what was that?”

“About an hour ago,” he mumbled, just a bit more clearly, and Ellie leaned back in her chair, well pleased now as his cheeks were bright red—served him right.

Rose smiled brightly at Ellie, sending her a cheeky wink even as she continued to console her husband. “Do you wanna see a picture?” she offered happily.

Alec harrumphed in annoyance as Rose barely waited for Ellie’s excited “Yes!” before running for the photo album they kept under the television set. She came back and presented her with the large thing, proudly labelled ‘Alec and Donna’—as was the way for twins.

The picture on the front was them at two years old, stubbornly holding hands as they posed for the photographer in matching outfits. Ellie let out a delighted squeal at the image, and flipped over the cover hungrily, pleased to find that the first six years of Alec’s life seemed to be holding onto his sister’s hand  through every single life event, and wearing a lamb costume every Halloween while Donna dressed as Little Bo Peep.

“This is incredible,” she whispered in awe, shaking her head as she continued flipping the pages, sounding for all the world like her wildest dreams had come true. The hand holding had stopped, but the two still appeared to be attached at the hip—thick as thieves in the way that her and her sister never were.

At twelve they went to Disney World and wore matching mouse ears. At sixteen Alec allowed her to paint his toenails while he was reading Charles Dickens. Ellie laughed and mocked him accordingly at all the them, and though he continued to look stubbornly put out, she could very clearly see the upturn at the corners of his lips as he looked at the photos as well.

Every few years there was a professional photograph stuck in between all the slightly-blurry home ones. At first Ellie thought the mansion behind them was set dressing, but she quickly realised from the decor of the other photos and the frequency of family holidays that Alec came from money— _ a lot _ of money—though she decided not to comment on it.

The photos dwindled as they got older. There was a rather cute one of Donna wearing his cap on the day he graduated from Scotland Police College. A while later Alec was the best man at her wedding, and a bit later she was the maid of honour at his. 

Ellie closed the album on the last photos. A baby photo juxtaposed next to them as adults—a picture which was very clearly taken by Rose as Alec was gazing not at the camera, but at the person holding it, looking smitten as ever.

“If it makes you feel any better,” Rose said as she took the album back, “I didn’t know he had any family at all until Donna showed up herself on our doorstep.”

“You were already living together?” Ellie asked incredulously.

She laughed, “Well, to be fair, that happened rather quickly. We weren’t dating yet.” 

“It’s a wonder you didn’t find out until the wedding,” Ellie quipped.

“I think that was his plan,” Rose sighed dramatically.

“All right,” Alec complained, earning giggles from the women that he rolled his eyes at.

 

Ellie went back to Devon despite the Tyler-Hardy’s offering of their guest bedroom yet again. And yet again the morning came to find her running late and out of bronze as she attempted to pay the parking meter.

“Oh, bloody hell!” she shouted angrily as she tried to scrounge up enough shrapnel to last until lunch.

“Here you go,” a voice said from right behind her, making Ellie jump as he came around to pay for her. “I’ve got it.”

Ellie glared at the man in front of her. “I hope you’re not stalking me—or Rose.”

Jimmy Stone’s expression darkened. “She’s mine,” he growled rather childishly.

“Actually, she isn’t.”

“She isn’t Alec’s,” he insisted.

“No,” Ellie agreed, folding her arms in front of her. “She doesn’t belong to anyone. She’s her own person.”

“I just want her back.”

Her fists clenched involuntarily at that, a surprising urge to protect Rose (and Alec) running through her. “You stay away from her,” she said, vaguely threateningly, before pushing past him.

 

“He paid your parking?” Alec repeated incredulously as they stood outside the courtroom, speaking in hushed tones so that Rose wouldn’t overhear. He looked wildly to the large glass windows overlooking the car park. “Is he still out there?”

“No, pretty sure he left,” Ellie spoke to his frantic profile. “She hasn’t gotten any more calls has she?”

He ran his hands through his hair as he shook his head. “No, he knows I’ll throw his scrawny ass in jail the second it can be considered harassment.” He paused. “It worries me.”

“It worries you that he’s not harassing her?”

“It worries me that he’s smart enough not to,” he corrected ominously.

Ellie was still trying to come up with a response to that as they filed into the courtroom.

 

“I'd been playing a bit of online poker and then I went to the window to close the curtains,” Lucy explained as she stood in front of the court.

“What time was this?” Jocelyn questioned.

“4:47 AM,” she answered quickly, and then nodded to the jury. “I checked it on the computer.”

“And what did you see when you went to the window to close the curtains?”

“A man putting a bag into a bin across the street.”

“Can you describe the man?”

Lucy didn’t miss a beat. “I saw the defendant, Joe Miller.”

Jocelyn opened her mouth, and then closed it again. Looking like she wanted to say quite a lot more than what was actually appropriate for court. “You're certain of the man's identity?” she asked pointedly, tilting her head down and appearing to be attempting to communicate telepathically with Ellie’s sister.

Lucy was stubborn though. “He's my brother-in-law; I should be able to recognise him.”

Jocelyn had to make a decision then. Allow her witness to say this without debate from her, or allow Sharon to to say it. The former was weakening her own argument, but the later was strengthening Sharon’s. She sighed. She needed to keep the jury on her side. “Your statement to the police stated that you couldn't identify the person you saw,” she told Lucy.

“No, I did tell them. Not sure why they didn't put it in the statement.”

Alec whispered over to Ellie, “What is she doing?”

“I wish I knew,” Ellie growled, her jaw clenching.

Jocelyn felt rather like she wanted to throw something, but she kept her face carefully passive despite the fact that her witness just undercut and cast doubt upon all of the police work done on the investigation. “Thank you,” she said, sitting back down. 

Sharon began, “Looking at the date of your statement, Miss Stevens, you didn't go to the police until 57 days after seeing the man you claim to be the defendant.”

“I didn't connect it to Danny's death until a few weeks later.”

“Really?” Sharon raised her brows. “Despite it being the talk of your town? Despite your  _ own sister  _ being one of the investigating officers?” She motioned over to Ellie for emphasis.

“I know this is everyday for you, but the rest of us haven't lived through this before,” Lucy snapped back. “It was new.”

“The facts of your evidence are:  _ finally _ you make a statement,  _ 57 days _ after having seen a figure on a dark street, but you  _ forget _ to name the man you claim to have seen.”

“I didn't forget, the police didn't put it in the—”

Sharon cut her off her insistence that no sane person would ever believe. “And today, for the first time, you say it was Joe Miller! You're having the court on, aren't you?”

“I know what I saw.”

“You might have seen a man, but you didn't see the defendant, did you? Why have you changed your story?”

Lucy set her jaw. “I know what my own brother-in-law looks like. And I'd know him from miles off. I saw him out there that night.”

 

At lunch, Lucy caught up to Ellie as she was going up the stairs with Alec, both of them looking a little lost as Rose had gone off to eat with Beth and the rest of the Latimers.

“Come on, how was that?” Lucy grinned. “Did I play a blinder, or what?”

Ellie shook her head angrily as she pushed past her.  “I can't even talk to you.”

Alec suddenly felt the need to call his sister, but he settled for sending her a quick text.

**-Thanks for not being insane.**

**-Alright, weirdo.**

 

Jocelyn had decided to end her case with a surprise character witness. 

“Mr Miller and I worked for two years together, between 1996 and 1999,” she explained. “We were shift partners working as paramedics at Cardiff City Hospital.”

“Can you describe Mr Miller as a colleague?”

She shrugged. “A bit quiet, kept himself to himself.”

“When did you stop working together?”

“It was November 1998, two days after Bonfire Night, and it was at my request.”

“And why did you request it?”

“Joe had offered to give me a lift to get some shopping. The supermarket car park was  _ really _ busy. Then he saw a space, but this bloke in a BMW came in the other way, the wrong way, and got in ahead of him.”

“What did the defendant do then?” 

“He jumped out the car, ran across and punched the guy in the face!” she raised her brows involuntarily as she retold the story, her original emotions coming back to her. “The bloke fell back against the car and Joe started kicking him, going at him  _ really _ hard.”

“Did you try and stop him?”

“When I realised what was going on, yeah. But by the time I got there though the guy was bleeding. He ended up with three broken ribs and it took four people to pull Joe off him.”

“Had there been any warning signs that Mr Miller might have a violent tendency?”

She shook her head quickly. “Nothing. It came out of nowhere.”

“Thank you,” Jocelyn concluded with a smug sort of smirk towards Ben.

Alec and Ellie were both staring at Joe with wide eyes, and Alec turned to look at her. “Did you know about this?” he mouthed silently.

“No,” she mouthed back, looking just a bit scared of that fact.

Sharon stood up. “ls it a high pressure job being a paramedic?”

“It can be,” she conceded. “But on  _ that _ day, we had a good run and even had some time off.”

The barrister had a hard time masking her annoyance at that answer, but she moved on, “How many lives did Mr Miller save in the two years that you worked together?”

“I don't know.”

“Two, three?” Sharon offered.

“More like 50 or 60.” She squinted at her, and looked to the jury. “It doesn't make what he did right though.”

“But you never saw any sign of this behaviour before that day?”

“He blew! I saw him go—”

“Thank you,” Sharon tried to cut her off as she quickly realised she couldn’t win this battle.

She kept going though, having more to say on the matter. “It was like a switch had been flipped in him. Scared the life out of me! He nearly killed that guy!”

“Thank you!” Sharon shouted over her.

 

Daisy stared at Tom as they waited for her parents to pick them up outside the school (they were late). “What are you doing?”

Tom didn’t look up from his phone. “Refreshing Olly’s twitter for updates on how the trial’s going.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Why?”

He only looked at her sideways at that, and she let out a long suffering sigh, distantly wondering if she’d ever get her mate back or if she should just find someone else to play football and not-talk-about-Danny with.

She was running through the short list of options she had in terms of replacements when her dad’s car pulled up next to them and Tom was shoving her in front of him so that he didn’t have to walk around or scooch.

“Tom…” Rose started carefully after they’d turned out of the school. “I was thinking, maybe you’d like to talk to your mum—”

“No,” Tom cut her off rudely.

Alec and Daisy, having much the same level of patience (which was far lower than Rose’s), made similar annoyed expressions. Alec gripped the wheel just a bit tighter, while Daisy much less subtly let out an exasperated noise and sagged into her seat.

“Okay,” Rose replied calmly, biting the inside of her cheek as she tried to think of another tactic. “Can I ask why?”

“She left.”

“She felt she had to, Tom,” Rose reminded him gently. “And she wanted you to come with her. She left Broadchurch, not you.”

“You can’t make me see her.”

Rose opened her mouth, but unfortunately Alec beat her to it as his patience officially ran out. “Actually, we can.”

“No, I’ll leave!” Tom nearly shouted, sounding panicked. “I’ll stay with Aunt Lucy!”

Rose rubbed at the headache that was quickly forming behind her brow. “Your aunt lost her house today, Tom,” she said quietly, letting that sink in, and him sink back into his seat before she went on. “She’s moving into a one bedroom on the estates. Olly’s having to find somewhere to stay as well.”

Tom’s face was red, and tears were beginning to fall as he stared angrily out the window. “Everything sucks,” he grumbled miserably.

None of them had any response to that.

 

“If he were my kid I’d drag him kicking and screaming back home and he’d bloody well get over it,” Donna said over the phone that evening as Alec caught her up with the events of the week that hadn’t already been relayed through text.

Alec sighed. His sister had already informed him multiple times of how she didn’t approve of Tom’s behavior. “It’s complicated,” he let out. “He’s going through a lot.”

“Doesn’t give him any right to shout at you and Rose—everything you’ve done for him.”

Alec silently agreed with that, even though he wouldn’t say it out loud. Actually, he really didn’t mind Tom shouting at him. By all means, if it made the kid feel better. It was the shouting at his pregnant wife that really got under his skin.

Rose had closed in on herself after the car journey from hell. She’d disappeared into their room the second they were back home, and hadn’t come down for dinner. Even Tom had gotten over himself enough to come out for chicken.

Rose had Daisy and him and Beth and Ellie and Tom and her students at school and church to worry about. All while being pregnant. And now her bloody murdering ex-boyfriend was back to top it all off—  _ Oh yeah.  _ “Oh and… Jimmy Stone got out,” he finally told his sister what he’d been putting off for the last week.

“ _ What? _ ” Donna bit out incredulously.

“And he’s in Broadchurch.”

“ _ What?! _ ” she screeched, and Alec winced.

“And he’s already attempted to contact Rose.”

“ALEC!” Donna shouted and he knew that she’d flung herself out of her seat in order to give herself the illusion she was standing over him. “GET A BLOODY RESTRAINING ORDER!”

“I can’t, can I?” he answered miserably, sitting back heavily. “Not until this bloody trial’s over.”

Thankfully, Donna knew enough about trials not to question that, but she did complain loudly about it for next few minutes while Alec nodded along mutely. Their conversations rather often turned into one of them just voicing the other’s thoughts out loud. It was oddly therapeutic, in a way.

“Are you guys okay?” she finally asked after taking a few breaths to calm herself. “Should I come down there? Help out?”

“No, no, it’s fine. We’re fine,” Alec sighed.

 

Rose stared at herself in the bathroom mirror as she wiped away the last few remaining dregs of her makeup that had managed to cling onto her for the full day. Her hand drifted up to touch lightly at her throat as her mind wandered.

The necklace her grandmother had given her before she died was no longer around her neck—pawned for rent when Jimmy was out getting drunk or high or both. 

Her eyes flickered back up to her face. She had a bruise around her eye and scratches along her cheekbone. The granite countertop beneath her hands turned into a grey and moldy sink basin. The wallpaper behind her was peeling, and the tiles beneath her feet were broken.

He’d come home smelling like a sewer and grabbing at her. She said no but he didn’t hear her, or didn’t care. He grabbed her by the hair as she tried to get away, and took her on the floor.

Rose stared at herself in the mirror, fingers trailing along the scars left by her boyfriend.

She didn’t recognize herself.

In the morning he didn’t remember what had happened. She forgave him. He didn’t know…

Rose sucked in a breath, grabbing at the clean granite counter in front of her in a desperate attempt to ground herself. Tears streamed down her face in quick succession, and before she knew what was happening she was collapsing onto her knees in front of the toilet and emptying her stomach. The world around her kept flickering between March 2014 and September 1997.

Then Alec was beside her, and she instinctively flinched away from his touch before his face swam into focus and she relaxed enough to allow him to hold her hair with one hand and rub her back with the other.

Eventually, the static in her ears cleared enough for his voice to break though, even if it did sound like he was on the other side of glass. “Hey, you’re okay,” he told her soothingly. “You’re safe.”

Rose fell into his chest and let out a broken sob, and he held her as tightly as he could, rocking her back and forth until she calmed down.

 

And the walls weren’t that thick. Daisy pulled her knees up to her chest as she heard her Mum crying but she didn’t know what for, a million different scary possibilities flitting through her head.

Tom had just enough sense left to come in and check on her. “Are you okay?” he asked from the doorway.

Daisy nodded even if she wasn’t sure it was true.

“Is your mum?”

Daisy did shake her head then. “Something’s happening, but they won’t tell me what.”

Tom pushed the door open fully at that so that he could walk in. “Does it have to do with the baby?”

“No it’s been happening for a week now. Mum seems really scared, and Dad’s on edge. She keeps crying a lot but they think I don’t know.”

“A week? Do you think it’s something with the trial?”

“No,” Daisy answered automatically. “I think it’s something really dangerous.”

“Why?”

She stared at him with wide eyes for a few moments before answering softly, “Because I think there’s someone following me.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a really bad day and I thought I’d post this early and maybe at least make someone else’s day a bit better. This is probably one of my favorite chapters in the story so I really hope you like it too!
> 
> comments much appreciated!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNINGS: panic attacks, stalking, domestic abuse (emotional/physical), sexual assault, gun violence

_[April, 1998]_

Rose had run out of things to pawn and Jimmy had stopped getting gigs all together. She was pretty sure his band mates had all either been arrested or killed.

They were kicked out of the flat on her 19th birthday. Jimmy hadn’t remembered.

They took shelter in an old abandoned warehouse where Jimmy normally went to get drugs. It was a crack den full of heroin addicts and prostitutes.

Jimmy wrinkled his nose as he surveyed the place. “You’ll fit right in here,” he told her, shoving his bag into her chest.

He tried having sex with her that night on an old molding mattress surrounded by strangers. She tried pushing him off but he punched her and she passed out. When she came around he was inside her.

She just turned her head, pressing her lips together as tears escaped her.

…

 

She woke up with tears already running down her cheeks, plastering her hair to the sides of her face. She sniffed and rolled over so that she could place her head on Alec’s chest and curl herself around him.

In his sleep he shifted so that he could hold her tightly in return, and she took comfort in that, even though it had been years since she’d last dreamt of Jimmy.

 

Rose was put on bed rest that morning, so it was Alec alone who drove with Ellie to the next town over to try and sort out everything Lucy needed quickly in a desperate attempt to keep her from being homeless in the transition.

“Would you do this,” Ellie started, “for your sister?”

“Donna slept on my couch for six months after her fiance left her at the altar,” Alec told her, surprising himself a bit at the ease at which he did, but was less surprised than he thought he should be. Probably more surprised at his lack of surprise than anything.

Ellie nodded smally. “Lucy too—after Olly’s dad left. Both of them were in my house for ages before I finally got her settled.”

Alec glanced at her sideways, curiosity almost getting him to ask for details, but deciding against it.

Her brow furrowed as she caught sight of a familiar-looking statue. “This is near Sandbrook, isn’t it?” Alec nodded. “I looked through that file,” she went on. “Why don’t you ever talk about it?”

He stayed silent for so long Ellie eventually gave up, assuming he wasn’t going to answer. So it startled her when he finally spoke. “I found her,” he admitted slowly, not looking at her as he did. “Pippa Gillespie. She was in the river…I went in after her, and it were deeper than I thought. I got pulled under. I just managed to get free and carry her body onto the bank.” He swallowed thickly. “She'd been in there maybe three days. Water rots the body… She was the same age as my daughter—”

He cut himself off with a deep shaking breath, and Ellie pressed her lips together to keep herself from crying at the image, but she could feel the tears threatening to fall. She gripped the steering wheel tightly and averted her gaze.

“I can still feel the weight of her… Water dripping off her clothes all down me…” He was definitely crying now, and he clenched his jaw as the anger overtook the sadness. “What sort of a person leaves a child like that?”

Ellie had been thinking the same thing for months as every night images of Danny’s body flashed along with the face of the man she had slept beside every night.

“That’s what made you sick, isn’t it?” she whispered, suddenly remembering how much he hated being on the water—the sheer panic on his face every time they were forced to be during the investigation.

He didn’t answer.

 

“What are we doing?” Tom asked as he chased Daisy up the hill. Technically, they were supposed to be in school, but since there wasn’t court today her parents had agreed to let them skive off for the day.

“If he follows us out into the open, there won’t be anywhere he can hide.”

“Doesn’t that also mean there won’t be anywhere for _us_ to hide?” Tom looked around frantically. “Isn’t this dangerous? What if he tries to y’know… kill us?”

“Oh come off it, what are the odds of that?” she said flippantly, not slowing in her progress towards the edge of the cliff.

“Well if someone asked me a year ago what I thought the odds were that my dad would be on trial for murdering my best mate I would have said zero,” Tom replied darkly. “I’m starting to think maybe the odds of getting murdered might be a bit higher than we thought. Especially if you have a _stalker._ ”

Daisy didn’t respond to that because she didn’t know how. He had a point, dark as it was.

When they reached the top they spun in a small circle until they spotted him—standing on the cliff opposite, watching them.

“Is that him?” Tom whispered, not quite able to find his voice.

Daisy nodded mutely. The wind blew her hair into her face, but she couldn’t get her arm to move it out of the way. She’d been hoping she’d been imagining it.

 

Beth showed up at Rose’s with a lasagne.

It occurred to Rose as she was making room for the dish in the fridge and waiting for the kettle to boil that Ellie currently knew more about what was going on in her life than Beth did—and that was only because _Alec_ had been the one to offer up the information. Somehow, things had gone very backwards.

“I feel like we haven’t really spoken in ages,” Beth said as Rose handed her the cuppa, giving voice to her thoughts.

“God, I know.” Rose sat down in the space next to her on the sofa. “How are you? My God, you just gave birth and look at you!”

Beth laughed slightly, a blush colouring her cheeks as she smiled down at her tea. “I’m okay. Y’know… as well as I can be.”

—And _that’s_ why Rose will _not_ be telling Beth about her crazy murderer ex boyfriend being in town. The last thing the woman needed was another thing to worry about.

She nodded in understanding, reaching a hand out to cover Beth’s. “Of course, dear. Things are going well though, if that helps. This is the smoothest trial I’ve ever seen so far—and I’ve seen plenty.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes. The defense’s whole game in this is cynicism, and that tactic has failed nearly every time she’s tried it.”

Beth snorted. “When she tried to accuse Ellie and Alec!”

“I know!” Rose laughed. “Could you imagine?”

Beth shook her head vehemently as she giggled. “No. _Never._ ”

Their laughs died down after a few seconds of trying and failing to conceive of any sort of ridiculous scenario in which that would happen. And then finally Rose asked, “Have you spoken to her?”

“No,” she set her jaw stubbornly, but at Rose’s look she let out a defeated sigh. “I just don’t know what to say.”

“‘Hello’ might be a good start?”

Beth grimaced, and Rose pressed her lips together and nodded in understanding. “Yeah… I know. Maybe once the trials over with?”

“Yeah,” Beth agreed weakly. “Yeah, maybe.”

 

They got all the paperwork in order for Lucy and started back towards Broadchurch, though Ellie had taken out her phone as soon as they pulled out of the car park in search of food. She started rambling in between giving directions.

“...I keep replaying my evidence over and over, thinking of the things I should've said differently—Yeah, this road here—All the comebacks I should have thrown at her.”

“You did the best you could,” Alec replied distractedly as he turned left towards her finger.

She let out a derisive snort. “Yeah, there’s a epitaph: ‘Ellie Miller, she did the best she could’—Just up here I think—Dammit, Alec, what if Joe gets off?”

It took him a second to process all of that at once. “He won't,” he replied as he pulled up next to the diner.

“But what if he does?” she persisted.

“He won't, Miller.” Alec unbuckled his seatbelt and stepped out of the car.

“I don't know what I'd do,” she nattered on as she chased him up the pavement and through the doors.

 

Tom wouldn’t stop throwing endless questions at Daisy as they sat inside the chippie, sipping milkshakes and pretending they didn’t know there was a man following them—though they couldn’t actually see him now.

“What do we _do?_ ” he whispered loudly for what was likely the 15th time since they’d stopped running. “Should we tell your dad?”

“No,” Daisy answered sternly, still glancing around every few seconds to see if she could spot the man.

“He’s the police!”

“So’s your mum,” Daisy snapped back. “Maybe we should tell her instead.”

Tom glared at her and Daisy smirked, taking it to mean she’d won. She leaned forward conspiratorially once she’d deemed the shop vacant of her stalker or anyone who might be eavesdropping. “We need to investigate this ourselves,” she told him.

“What?” he asked incredulously. “Why?”

“Because I want to know what’s going on. And if my parents find out we already know _anything_ they’ll make sure we don’t find out anything else.”

Tom gave her a weary look. “So what are you gonna do? You don’t even know this guy’s name or what he’s doing—”

“Well it’s gotta have something to do with my dad, doesn’t it? Dad probably locked him up a long time ago and now he’s looking for revenge—”

“This isn’t an old western film, Daisy!”

She glared at him stubbornly and waited until he shrunk back in his seat before going on. “I can get us into my dad’s office and we can look at his previous cases. I bet it’s all in the files.”

“How did I get roped into this again?”

“I let you sleep in my house.”

“Your parents do, actually. So if anything I should be more loyal to _them_ —”

Tom cut himself off as Daisy threw a chip at him.

 

“...So I’ve been thinking about that charity thing I mentioned doing earlier, something in Danny’s name?” Beth started hesitantly.

“Oh my God, yeah! You did say something about that didn’t you? How’s that going?”

“Well, I did have one idea… a charity to help kids make that transition to secondary school. That time when they're growing up, but really are still kids inside—that age when they start keeping secrets. We could create packs, do a website, and set up a phone line…”

“That’s a great idea!” Rose enthused.

“Yeah, but Maggie and Paul shot it down—said there’s already places that do that.”

Rose tilted her head. “There can’t be another one?”

Beth sighed, “Not that’ll get funding.”

“Well what was their big idea then?”

She took a few moments to organise her thoughts before going on. “It’s… with sex offenders.”

“Oh. Like—?”

“Rehabilitation. Provide support. Stop offenders reoffending. Specifically those who have targeted children,” Beth explained, looking a bit sick as she did.

Rose didn’t look too well on the idea either. “That’s…”

“Danny's legacy would be helping the sort of man who murdered him,” she nodded. “Stop children being targeted by stopping the people targeting them.”

Rose blew out a breath. “You’re brave.”

Beth shook her head. “I’m not. I’m not that forgiving.”

 

They got through the police station rather easily, all things considered. If you ignore the bit where they hopped a few fences, climbed a number of trees, and ran threw more than a couple back gardens in order to shake their tail before walking into the station.

But once inside it was just “Hey Daisy, Hey Tom, What are you doing here?” and “Left my bag in my dad’s office just gonna grab it real quick” a few times over until finally they were slipping into the DI’s office and surreptitiously shutting the blinds.

“Doesn't it need a password?” Tom asked over her shoulder as she started booting up his computer.

Daisy rolled her eyes as she clicked to log on. “Dad uses two passwords for everything,” she said as she typed ‘Rose’ into the home screen and ‘Daisy’ into the database log in.

“Now, let’s see,” she muttered to herself as she figured out how to navigate the quite frankly terrible design of the government website. “Arrest records… sort by officer… Alec Tyler-Hardy…”

They scrolled through years worth of mug shots but were still coming up blank on page eight. “Maybe it was before they got married?” Tom suggested.

“Oh.” Daisy highlighted the ‘Tyler-’ and pressed delete. New (older) mugshots loaded after a few minutes of staring at a progress bar.

“This computer is really shit,” Tom mumbled as it froze for the seventeenth time.

Daisy wanted to make some comment about him not being one to talk—considering he’d smashed his own laptop with a rock a few months ago—but it seemed rather misplaced, so she pressed her lips together and clicked ‘sort newest first’ from a drop down menu.

“There!” he shouted suddenly after she clicked to page three, making her jump as he reached forward to point at a face in the middle of the screen that looked rather like a younger version of the man they saw on the cliffs earlier.

“Ha!” Daisy clicked the name ‘Stone, Jim’ and then the ‘download file’ option, but they both groaned as another progress bar appeared.

A second later though, a window popped up saying ‘The file name stone_jim.pdf already exists. Would you like to replace it?’

“Wait…” Tom said.

“Why would Dad have a fourteen year old case file saved on his computer?” Daisy clicked ‘No’ and then cancelled the command before bringing up the finder window and searching for it.

They both sucked in a breath as the word ‘murder’ greeted them.

She scrolled down until the photographs came up. The dead body didn’t bother them as much as what came after it.

“Is that—?”

“ _Mum,_ ” Daisy whispered.

 

_[January, 1999]_

“Rose, come on, I’m taking you home.” Mickey said, taking her hand and pulling her up from the dirty concrete floor littered with old needles and used condoms.

The refusal that she needed help was on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn’t get herself to say it. She gripped his hand more tightly, and followed him without question.

They only got a few feet towards the door though before Jimmy came around the corner.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he demanded, stepping forward menacingly.

Rose stepped behind her best friend as Mickey squared his shoulders, shielding her more fully. “I’m getting Rose away from here and away from the likes of you.”

Jimmy laughed incredulously, loud barking laughter, like he thought it must have been a joke. “That’s not up to you, mate.”

“No,” Mickey agreed. “It’s up to Rose. She doesn’t want to be with you anymore.”

Jimmy sneered. “It’s not up to her either.” He took another step toward them. “I’m her boyfriend. I’m in charge of her. It’s as I say.”

“That’s not how this works.” Mickey tugged Rose with him as he started toward the door again. “Come on, Rose. We’re going.”

Jimmy grabbed his shoulder before they could pass, taking Rose by the forearm and flinging her into the corner without a second glance. He shoved Mickey backwards. “No, I don’t think you’re going anywhere.”

Mickey pulled his fist back and delivered a sickening blow to Jimmy’s jaw.

Jimmy had more experience street fighting than Mickey though. He punched him right back, harder, sending him staggering backwards. He grabbed him by the ears before he could get his bearing and slammed his forehead into his knee.

Mickey tried to fight back but it was already a lost battle. Jimmy could have stopped right there, but it wasn’t good enough for him.

He pulled the gun from his waistband.

“In fact, you’re not going anywhere ever again,” he said, and without another second’s consideration, fired the weapon point blank into Mickey’s chest.

“NO!” Rose screamed, lunging forward, but stopped herself as Jimmy turned the gun on her.

Like a siren had sounded, all the drug addicted Londoners in the crack den started running for the exits, stepping over Mickey’s seizing body and kicking Rose repeatedly in their haste.

“Say anything and I’ll put a bullet right through that pretty little stupid head of yours,” Jimmy threatened her through gritted teeth, pressing the barrel of the gun right against her temple, letting his finger rest against the trigger.

Rose closed her eyes and nodded, half waiting and half hoping he’d just kill her, but when she opened her eyes again he was gone.

Choking on a sob she crawled towards her friend’s lifeless body. There was a pool of blood around him, spilling out onto her hands and knees. His eyes stared unseeingly upwards.

She tried to put pressure on the wound, like she’d seen them do in the films, but it was already too late. He was already gone.

Minutes or hours later she heard sirens and a car pull up outside. She looked up through red blurry eyes as slow footsteps approached her.

“Please,” she begged the young detective, “help me.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was super short so I'm gonna post chapter 5 tomorrow because I'm nice like that ;)
> 
> comments and kudos are my everything ❤︎


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TRIGGER WARNINGS: panic attacks, threats, stalking, sexual assault, physical and emotional domestic abuse, domestic imprisonment

Daisy couldn’t get the images of her mum bruised and beaten out of her head. She kept recalling all the notes her father had taken in his messy handwriting, recounting her abusive relationship.

_ That was how her parents had met? On a murder scene in some crack den? They first spoke in an interrogation room? _

She and Tom both jumped as they entered the house to cheerful greetings from the people whom they’d just learned about the harrowing pasts of.

Daisy felt dirty. Like she knew secrets that she wasn’t supposed to. She was looking over her shoulder the whole way home, looking for the man who had abused her mother, murdered a man, and was now following her around.

She had to tell them.

She really didn’t want to.

Rose squinted at them. “You two look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“We sorta did,” Tom mumbled under his breath, and Daisy hit him.

Alec looked suspiciously between them. “We’re going out for dinner,” he told them, though he was clearly still trying to figure out why they looked so off-kilter.

 

Fifteen minutes later they were seated at the little Italian restaurant in town, and Daisy and Tom kept looking around anxiously.

“Would you two knock that off?” Alec snapped. “What’s got you all up to high doh?”

“Nothing, we’re fine,” Daisy answered quickly, sounding anything but. “I’m gonna go get my drink.”

She only made it about three steps away from their table though before suddenly Jimmy Stone was leering over her with a sickening sort of smile. Behind her, she could hear her father jumping up from his seat.

“Hello sweetheart, how old are you?”

Daisy swallowed thickly, “t-twelve,” she stuttered out before allowing Alec to push her behind him.

“Ah, can’t be mine then, can she?” Jimmy smirked evilly at the detective inspector and shrugged. “Oh well, thought I’d ask.”

Rose sat completely frozen at the table, sure this must be some horrible nightmare, but unable to wake herself from it. She stared on in horror as Jimmy’s gaze moved from Alec to Daisy to Tom and finally settled on her.

“Hello Rose,” her name dripped from his lips and the sound of it made an icey shiver run down her back.

He moved to step towards her, but Alec shifted to block him. “Get out of here,” he growled. “Stay away from my family.”

Jimmy laughed at the threat and clapped Alec on the shoulder—a move which earned him a murderous look—before stepping backwards, his hands up in mock-surrender. “What are you gonna do? Arrest me for saying hello?”

“Don’t tempt me.”

Jimmy rolled his eyes. “Yeah whatever, mate.” He leaned forward so that he could stage-whisper in Alec’s ear. “You can keep on fucking the bitch. Just remember, I was there first.”

Daisy, thankfully, was quick enough to grab her father’s clenched fist before he could slam it into the other man’s face, and Alec had to settle for a low “Get out,” ground out through his teeth.

Jimmy laughed again as he spun on his heel and exited the restaurant.

“Mum,” Daisy was the first one to speak as she ran quickly back to take the chair next to her mother’s and squeeze her hand. “Are you okay?”

That seemed to snap Alec back into action as he crouched down at her other side. Her breathing was heavy and she seemed unable to respond.

Somehow they ended up back in the car, and somehow Alec managed to drive them back home without wrecking. 

Daisy and Tom sat silently on the sofa while her parents disappeared upstairs.

“Okay,” Alec started as he stood in front of them a bit later, running his hands through his hair and looking lost and tired. “I don’t—”

“We know, Dad,” Daisy saved him the trouble.

“You… what?”

She let out a long breath and answered to the floor. “I noticed that guy was following me, so I dragged Tom with me to your office so we could go through your arrests. I figured it was revenge or something, but then we found the file and…”

“Oh Dais, tell me you didn't.”

Daisy screwed her eyes shut. “We read it.”

Alec’s hands fell back to his hair and he spun around. He rubbed the heels of his palms into his eyes and allowed them to drag down his face. “Your mother is going to be so upset,” he whispered into his hands. “Even more than she already is.”

“I’m sorry.”

Alec looked back up to her. “Why didn’t you tell me you thought you were being followed?”

“You guys already seemed really stressed I didn’t wanna—” she cut herself off at the look her dad was giving her at that explanation. “I know. I should’ve told you. I wish I had. I’m sorry.”

He pressed his lips together and nodded slowly. “Come here,” he finally said, opening his arms, and Daisy ran into them instantly, burying her face in his shirt.

“I’m sorry,” she cried.

“Shh… I know, Dais.”

She looked up at him with red eyes. “Is Mum gonna be okay?”

“She’ll be fine,” he assured her. “You know your mum, she’s a warrior.”

Daisy sniffed and nodded.

“Okay,” Alec placed a kiss to the top of her head, “Go get yourself cleaned up and we’ll order a chinese, yeah? That sound nice?”

She nodded again, taking a step back and wiping at her eyes before turning to run off to her room. When she was gone, Alec turned slowly back to Tom, who was still sitting rather awkwardly on the sofa, looking both sad and frightened.

“Am I in trouble?” he asked quietly.

Alec let out a little surprised laugh at that. “I have a feeling my daughter didn’t actually give you much choice in the matter in all this, did she?”

Tom shook his head mutely. Daisy was pretty much impossible to say no to. She’d’ve dragged him along kicking and screaming if he’d even tried to back out.

“Are you okay?”

Tom let that question roll around in his head for a while. He hadn’t been “okay” in months. Now he was just really sad on top of angry, and the whole ordeal has just proven his belief that the world was unfair and full of horrible people.

And that was starting to scare him.

“I…” he started, not really sure what to say, and then met Alec’s eyes. “I wanna see my mum.”

Alec nodded. “Call her.”

 

Ellie had never driven so fast in her entire life.

As soon as she stepped into the Tyler-Hardy’s front room she had an armful of her teenaged son as he cried into her shoulder. “I’m sorry, Mum,” he choked out.

“Oh,” Ellie let out breathlessly, hugging him back and sending Alec a questioning look over his shoulder. “That’s okay, I understand, I’m sorry too.”

“I shouldn’t have blamed you.”

“I blamed me too.”

“It’s not your fault.” He pulled away so that he could look at her. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Of course I’m okay, love.” Ellie reached forward to wipe the tears from his reddened face. “What’s brought this on though? What’s happened?”

Tom opened his mouth to explain, but Alec cut him off. “I’ll actually take it from here, Tom, if that’s okay. Why don’t you go check on Daisy for me?”

Tom nodded in understanding and ran off down the hall.

“Why?” Ellie demanded instantly. “What’s going on? Why does Daisy need checking in on?”

Instead of answering, Alec went over to a locked drawer underneath the china cabinet and pulled out a relatively thin file. He handed it over to her. “The kids found this,” he said.

Ellie furrowed her brow at him before flipping the file open.

 

...

_ [January, 1999] _

Rose was wrapped in a blanket and a cup of tea was placed in front of her, remaining untouched as she sat in one of the more comfortable rooms at Scotland Yard.

“What’s your name?” he asked her again, and Rose looked up finally from the tea that kept going in and out of focus.

It was the detective. The one who’d been at the squat. He’d been nice, she remembered now. She’d tried to fight him as he pulled her away from Mickey, but had eventually collapsed into his arms.

He gave her the blanket. And the tea.

“Rose,” she finally managed to answer, voice coming out scratchy and broken. She cleared her throat, shaking her head. “Rose Tyler.”

“Miss Tyler,” he started, and Rose finally noticed the thick Scottish accent.

“Just Rose, please,” she cut him off, and then instinctively flinched. She was surprised for a second, when he didn’t scold her.

The detective tilted his head, not missing the movement, and he attempted to make his voice gentler. “Rose,” he amended. “I’m gonna have to ask you to tell me exactly what happened tonight.”

Rose stared at the table as she told him. The whole scene only took about five minutes to relive, even with her stuttering and crying in between. And the detective sat through all of it patiently, even handing her a tissue when she needed.

“And can you give me a name for this man?” he asked, looking at her seriously.

Rose stared at him for a few seconds. “He said he’d kill me,” she whispered.

He shook his head. “I won’t let that happen.”

Rose snorted. “What, personally?”

“Yes,” he answered, not missing a beat.

Rose pressed her lips together, eyes searching his for the lie and coming up empty. “What’s your name?” she asked eventually.

“DC Alec Hardy.”

“What made you become a cop, Alec?”

Alec stared at her for a few moments, wondering where she was going with this. If it were any other person he would have just ignored the question and asked his own again. But there was something about the way she was looking at him. “My cousin,” he answered eventually. “She was taken when I was little. They never found her. I want to make sure no one else has to live without answers.” It was the first time he’d said that out loud.

Rose shook her head though. “I already know why this happened.”

Alec raised his brows. “Why’s that?”

“Because I messed up,” she said it like there was no other explanation. “I didn’t listen. I kept not listening. Making bad choices.”

“This is not your fault,” Alec told her firmly. “You are not responsible for anyone else’s actions.”

“You don’t know everything yet.”

Alec sat forward. “Then tell me.”

Rose looked up to him through her lashes. “You can promise me I’ll be safe? He won’t be able to get to me?”

“If he killed a man in front of you and then threatened you with a gun I can get you police protection, yes.”

Rose took a deep breath and nodded, closing her eyes for a second before she spoke again. “His name’s Jimmy Stone. I’ve been with him since I was 16—three, nearly four, years.”

“And Jimmy… was he abusive?” Alec asked, taking note of the old scars, yellowing and fresh bruises, and bloody scratches that marked her face and arms.

Rose stared at him with wide hazel eyes for a long moment, until finally she nodded silently.

“Abusive how? Physically? Mentally? Sexually?”

Rose nodded again and cleared her throat as he stayed silent, giving her a questioning look. “Yes, yeah. All of the above,” she managed to get out.

“Why’d you stay with him?” he asked, not accusatory though, more like it was another question for the tape.

Rose shrugged noncommittally. “He kept apologising. Blaming it all on drugs or alcohol or stress. Or else he was too pissed to remember he’d done anything at all and I told myself I couldn’t hold it against him. By the time he stopped apologising I’d started to believe everything he said.”

“And what did he say?”

Rose’s eyes snapped up to meet his. “Does it matter?”

“Yes,” Alec didn’t miss a beat, and then sighed when Rose kept her mouth firmly shut. “It affected how you were tonight during the fight.”

Rose closed her eyes against the onslaught of emotions. “He… he just always said I wasn’t worth anything. That I was nothing without him. I tried getting a job, before we got evicted a few months back. When he found out he got really mad, hit me—which wasn’t unusual at that point. But he started refusing to let me leave the flat, locking the doors and all that. That’s when he got the gun. Found it on the street and started acting all invincible.”

“So he’s threatened you with a gun before?” Alec asked, seeming surprised even though Rose had assumed that was implied.

Rose nodded. “That’s when I finally realised I needed to leave, but I couldn’t. I know he’d kill me. He wouldn’t think twice about killing me. He didn’t with Mickey—” She cut herself off, sucking in a shaking breath.

As Rose tucked a strand of hair behind her ear he noticed the marks around her wrist, similar to one’s he saw on a body in Scotland. “Rose has he… Did Jimmy ever tie you up?”

Rose rubbed at the scars and nodded. “When he found out I was leaving the house after he passed out. He tied me to the bathroom sink. Kept doing it after we got evicted. Whenever he’d leave the squat he’d tie me to the pipes. Forgot to untie me a couple of times… or didn’t care to. That’s how Mickey found me. Jimmy showed back up right when we were leaving.”

“And the other people there, they never said anything? Never did anything to try and help?”

Rose snorted at that. “You mean the heroin addicts? No, none of them ever felt like acting outside of their expected role in society, surprisingly.”

Alec sighed. “And did you ever use?”

Rose stared at him incredulously, ready to start screaming at him about accusing her of things when her best friend has just been—

But he was looking back at her like he was sorry. And glanced down at the tape recorder between them.

Rose sat back. “No, never. I saw what it did to people. I didn’t want that to happen to me.”

Alec nodded. “Earlier you said ‘all of the above’ … Did Jimmy ever rape you, Rose?”

“Is it rape if he was my boyfriend?” Rose asked quietly.

“Was it consensual?”

Rose shook her head, “No.”

“Then it was rape,” Alec answered firmly, making Rose look up to him again.

“Do I have to describe that for the tape as well then?” she asked tiredly.

Alec gave her an apologetic look, which was answer enough.

Rose sighed, wrapping her arms protectively around her waist. “He’d come back drunk or high or both trying to get on with me. I’d say no and push him away but he’d just grab me, hit me hard enough to stop me fighting or knock me out. It got worse after he started tying me up. Didn’t even have to be drunk then. He knew I couldn’t get away so he’d just—” She felt the tears running down her face now and choked on a broken sob. Alec nodded to let her know she didn’t have to go on.

“We’re going to have to get pictures of your injuries.” he told her, and Rose nodded in understanding. “And the clothes you’re wearing will have to go into evidence as well.”

At that, a nice looking woman appeared in the doorway, but Rose looked back over to Alec. “Will you still be here? When I get back?”

Alec froze. He’d interviewed a lot of traumatized victims in the last six years, but never once has one of them chosen  _ him _ as the person that was going to keep them safe. Usually they wrote him off as the gruff arsehole who kept prying and didn’t know how to look sympathetic. 

“I’ll be just outside the door the entire time,” he assured her.

Rose nodded and followed the FME out into and across the hall. Alec let out a long breath and went to find his boss.

“She needs protection,” he said as soon as he found him.

“Well she’s not getting it,” DI Grant answered without even looking up from the file in his hands.

“What?” Alec demanded angrily. “She’s witness to a murder! He threatened her with a gun!”

“So she says,” Grant replied boredly.

“What, does the state of her not give you reason enough to believe her?” Alec asked incredulously.

Grant shrugged. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen her and I don’t know what she said.” Alec opened his mouth to object but Grant kept going. “What I do know is that we can’t afford to be giving police protection to every chav whose shit boyfriend decides to kill somebody.”

“She’s not a—” Alec cut himself off. He didn’t really know anything about the woman, and it wouldn’t help his case to look like he was getting emotional. “I promised her she’d get protection if she talked to me. She hasn’t got anywhere to go.”

Grant rolled his eyes. “Not my problem. Call a women’s shelter.”

The DI walked away as Alec growled angrily under his breath. He stood there for a long while, quietly seething, until finally the door Rose had gone behind reopened.

She was wearing grey Scotland Yard sweats and her hair was wet as they’d apparently let her take a shower.

“Right,” Alec started as she walked up to him. “I’m gonna need a description of Jimmy. If you have a picture...”

Rose shook her head. “No, pawned my camera off for rent.”

“Right, well I can call the sketch artist but she probably can’t be in until—”

“Or,” Rose cut him off, looking sort of shy now. “I could sketch him.”

Alec tilted his head, looking uncomfortable like he didn’t want to offend her.

“I promise I’m good. Or at least I think I am. Jimmy always said I was awful and it was a useless talent but well...” She toyed with the too-long sweatshirt sleeves anxiously. “Look, at least I actually know what he looks like and it’s not just some description. Just let me try and if it isn’t good enough you can call the professional doodler.”

Alec tried not to smirk at that. “All right, fine,” he conceded. “Through here.”

It was already 11 o’clock and the light on Alec’s desk was the only one left on in the bullpen. He sat down and pulled round his desk neighbor’s chair for Rose, patting it while he dug through his drawer for the copy paper. Rose grabbed the yellow pencil out of the plastic cup.

“You haven’t got any pictures,” she commented mildly as she looked around his personality-barren work space.

Alec shrugged noncommittally, not feeling the need to explain his desire to keep his colleagues in the dark about his personal life in order to avoid welcoming any sort of conversation with them. Finally, he extracted the large stack of paper from the bottom of his drawer.

Rose started sketching almost immediately, and Alec could tell just by the way she worked that he’d been wrong to doubt her.

“Oh,” he let out as Jimmy’s face started to appear. “You are actually good.”

She chucked. “Yeah that would be a weird thing to lie about.”

“Well y’know some people think they’re really good at a thing when really they’re awful. Like all those people in the underground—” he cut himself off as he realised he was rambling (he didn’t ramble, he didn’t even speak much in general), and Rose was watching him amusedly.

He swallowed awkwardly. “Right, sorry, carry on.”

 

About an hour later she handed him the paper. She’d drawn him from a number of angles, as well as a full body drawing.

He looked exactly like you’d expect a walking piece of garbage to look. “You dated this guy?” he asked incredulously.

Rose snorted. “Thanks,” she said dryly, but kept going before Alec could attempt to backtrack. “No, he used to be nice. All kind smiles and sparkly eyes. It’s not like he hit me day one I thought ‘Yes this is good, exactly what I’ve been looking for.’”

Alec nodded. Yeah, that made sense. “Sorry.”

Rose shrugged and looked around the empty police station. “I haven’t got anywhere to go,” she whispered.

“I know.” Alec answered shortly, and Rose could hear the apology in his voice.

“You couldn’t get me any protection, could you?”

“No, Rose, I’m sorry—”

“It’s fine.” Rose shook her head, looking back over to him. “I sort of figured this would happen. Scotland Yard isn’t worried about some random chav—”

“Don’t call yourself that.”

Rose gave him a small pitying smile. “Don’t convince yourself I’m more than I am just because you know what happened. I did this to myself. I’m not some damsel in distress. I’m just a stupid girl that got involved with the wrong people and paid the price.”

Alec didn’t know how to respond to that, and Rose stood up.

“I’m going to walk out that door and he’s gonna find me and it will be my body you’re bagging next,” she told him, but she didn’t sound scared, just… defeated—like she was stating facts. “It was always going to end like this.”

Alec opened and closed his mouth a few times as he tried to come up with a response to that, but Rose was already walking away. He watched her go silently, the door opening and closing behind her with a blast of cold London air sweeping through.

“Shit!” he let out angrily to the the empty room.

After a few moments he chased after her but by the time he reached the streets she was gone. He spent the rest of the night looking for either her or Jimmy, but when the sun came up his car still had no new occupants. 

He turned a corner towards the nearest news office and handed them the sketch Rose had done along with the allegations and a warning to stay away if spotted, but to call 999 immediately.

Despite his best efforts, he didn’t see her again for another two days.

 

Alec was walking slowly through yet another squat when he saw her. She was bloody and bruised and even more worse for wear than when he first met her. Her wrists were tied to one of the old rusted pipes, huddled in the corner, shivering against the cold.

“Rose!” he shouted, running towards her. “Christ, what happened?”

She shook her head vehemently. “You have to get out of here. He’ll kill you.”

“Yeah, like hell am I leaving you here,” he threw back, already working at the knots keeping her hostage. 

“He will, Alec, please, I don’t want anybody else to die for me please just leave me!” she begged.

He ignored her, finally getting the knots undone, and moving to pull her to standing. She winced though as she tried to move. “Can you stand?”

She shook her head, biting her lip against the pain. “I think he dislocated my hip.”

“I’ll carry you,” he said, and didn’t wait for her reply before picking her up.

“Please hurry,” she whispered, looking around urgently for any signs of Jimmy.

Alec didn’t need telling twice. He sprinted from the building and to his car, setting her gently in the passenger side seat. He heard someone shouting in the last second before he closed his own door behind him, but drove away anyway. He could arrest Jimmy Stone any day. Right now he needed to get Rose to safety.

“Where are you taking me?” she asked, voice rough from dehydration.

“The hospital,” Alec answered without taking his eyes off the road. “You’re blue.”

“I’m tired.” Rose blinked slowly, her visions going in out of focus. “I’m just gonna close my eyes and…”

“No, no, no, no, no,” Alec rambled. “Rose! Rose I need you to stay awake for me.”

“Why?” she mumbled.

“Because you’re dying. You have significant blood loss,  hypothermia, and a probable concussion. Rose Tyler, I swear to God, if I just spent two days looking for you just for you to die in my car—”

That seemed to wake Rose up. “You spent two days looking for me?”

Alec didn’t answer that, setting his jaw stubbornly, and he was saved from having to as a second later he pulled into the hospital emergency car park.

She started drifting off again and so he lifted her into his arms and ran into the emergency room. “London Police, this woman needs attention right now!” he demanded as soon as he entered, thanking whoever was listening when nearby nurses jumped into action pulling around a gurney.

“What happened to her?” one of them asked.

“Domestic abuse,” he answered quickly. “I found her beaten and tied to a rusted pipe in an uninsulated warehouse, trousers missing and possible dislocated hip. She keeps trying to go to sleep.”

The nurse nodded quickly and ran after her colleagues as they wheeled Rose away.

Alec stood there for a few moments, anxiously clenching and unclenching his fists and looking around him worriedly, torn between waiting for news and going back out and tearing that little piece of shit in two.

The amount of concern he held for this woman he barely knew did not go over his head though and it made him feel nauseous. So instead he opted for the easiest option and went back to his car to go and find Jimmy Stone.

When he did it was actually rather uneventful. Alec grabbed his forearm as soon as he tried to reach for the weapon, and it was all pretty cut and dry after that. He admitted to killing Mickey while he was ranting about how he was gonna kill him too as Alec handcuffed him and shoved him in the back of his vehicle.

“See?” Grant said as Alec finished booking him. “And the girl is fine.”

“Actually she’s in the hospital with life threatening injuries. I found her half-dead tied up in a warehouse, but please keep telling me how she didn’t need police protection.”

Grant stared at him for a few seconds at that, but still he didn’t back down. “Maybe she needed it but she didn’t deserve it,” he said gruffly.

“Didn’t  _ deserve _ it?” Alec repeated incredulously. “What the hell does that mean?”

“It means some people are worth protecting and some people aren’t. She’ll be out of that hospital that was paid for by the tax dollars of good hardworking people. She’ll land back in the streets with another piece of shit like that, snorting coke, and shooting up heroin. It’s just how these things go. I know her type.”

Alec stood there quietly seething, calculating the pros and cons of punching his superior officer in the face. In the end reason won out and he allowed Grant to walk away unscathed, an annoyingly condescending smile on his face, while Alec glared daggers into the back of his skull.

 

He went back to the hospital that night, using his badge to get to her room despite it not being visiting hours.

She looked surprised to see him. “Hey,” she started, furrowing her brow.

“He’s been caught. He’s locked up—will be for a long time. Admitted to everything, actually.” He gave her a significant look. “He’s not very bright.”

Rose snorted at that. “Yeah I know. No need to rub it in.”

Alec hummed in agreement and looked around the room awkwardly. “I thought you’d be asleep,” he admitted. “I figured I’d just leave a note or—”

“Thank you,” Rose cut him off suddenly. “For saving me, I mean. I would have died if you hadn’t been looking for me.”

“Nah—”

“No, I would have. They told me.” She set him with a meaningful look. “You’re a good man, Alec Hardy.”

 

…

Ellie had tears in her eyes as she set the photos and Alec’s notes aside. “This is…”

Alec held his head in hands and spoke to the table they were sitting at. “I know.”

She sat back in her seat and sniffed as she tried to regain her composure, a million questions flitting through her head, but unsure of how to voice any of them. “How did he get out? With all this… it should have been 40 years at least.”

He grimaced. “He pleaded not guilty, and in those days juries let off domestic abusers all the time—especially the young ones. Rose was still traumatized and her therapist advised against her testifying. Without her testimony the pictures could easily be written off as self-inflicted or else done by anyone. And without her there the defense could paint her as psychotic and attention seeking… We wouldn’t get a conviction at all without a plea deal. So we dropped the abuse charges and offered a minimum sentence for murder—called it a crime of passion.”

“He must have had good lawyers.”

“The little shit got lucky.”

“In the arrest report you said he admitted to killing that guy though, wouldn’t that have been enough?”

Alec shook his head. “He only admitted it to me, and my word wasn’t good enough.” He looked up to Ellie finally. “I spent  _ two days _ doing nothing but combing through squats looking for Rose, and when I finally found her I was the one that drove her to the hospital,  _ and  _ went back to see her after.”

Ellie sighed in sudden understanding. “They could say you were too close to it.”

He nodded, and Ellie sat forward.

“How did you two end up together after all this? I mean, it’s not exactly a meet cute. And I doubt Rose was itching to jump into another relationship after…”

She drifted off as Alec was staring at her like she’d grown another head.  _ Right. Not exactly the most important takeaway from this. _ “No, sorry, right.” She pressed her lips together and sat back again, even though the question continued to nag at her.

Alec shook his head. “I’m sorry Tom had to see all this.”

“That’s alright. It’s not like he hasn’t already been traumatised,” she said tiredly. “I’ll just be paying therapy bills for the rest of my life.”

“Me too.”

Their eyes met, and Ellie thought she’d never seen so much anguish on another human being’s face before. “How is Daisy?”

Alec sighed. “Scared and confused. She just wants to see her Mum, I think. But Rose can barely speak after what happened tonight. She took a sleeping pill for the first time in years.”

Ellie was about to say something to that but a phone started ringing from somewhere else in the house and Alec glanced over to the kitchen to where Rose’s mobile was sitting on the counter. He squinted at it before getting up to check who was calling at this hour.

It was Beth. He let out a long breath before pushing accept and bringing the phone to his ear. “Hi Beth,” he said, ignoring the look Ellie shot him at the name.

“Oh, hey Alec,” Beth answered. “I guess Rose isn’t there?”

“No, she turned in early…” There was a beat of silence before he realised social customs dictated that he offer his own services. “... Uh, is there anything I can help you with? Or something you want me to tell her?”

“No it’s okay. I just wanted to check in on you guys. I heard something happened at Oregano’s tonight?”

Alec let out an irritated noise and looked up to the ceiling. “Bloody hell,” he grumbled. “Is there anyone in this town not constantly gossiping?”

Beth laughed at that, used to as she was by now of the DI’s complaining. “I didn’t get any details. I don’t think anyone heard anything. Just said there was some strange guy there acting odd and then you all ran out before ordering.”

“Yeah it’s…” he glanced down to the file still laid out on the table, “complicated.”

Beth seemed to know she wasn’t going to get any more information than that from him. “Okay well… just let Rose know I called, alright?”

“Yeah, will do. Okay, bye Beth.” He hung up before really hearing her goodbye.

Ellie let the silence hang between them for a few moments before saying, “I think you mentioned chinese?”

 

No one really ate much. Or said much.

In the end, Tom left with his mum to drive back to Devon, and Alec was putting four mostly untouched oyster pails into the fridge next to a lasagne he definitely would have warmed up instead had he known it was there.

When he got back into their room it was to find Daisy curled up next to Rose, looking somehow simultaneously small yet protective. They were both asleep, so Alec simply sighed and shifted them over best he could without them waking to lie down with them.

 

Rose woke up first, feeling groggy and disoriented. Despite a blissfully dreamless sleep, she was sweating and felt as though she’d been unconscious for the last twelve hours. 

She opened her eyes as she realised there was an odd sort of weight on her, and was surprised to find her daughter’s head buried into her arm while Alec laid with his arm stretched across the both of them.

She smiled a little to herself at the image they made—looking so much like each other as they slept, both clearly trying to protect her. She glanced at the clock. 7:08. Court wasn’t until the afternoon.

She wanted to lie there for a few more hours, but unfortunately she had a baby jumping up and down on her bladder while also insisting that she feed them.

“Alright little one,” she whispered as she rolled carefully out of the bed and tiptoed quietly to the bathroom so as to not disturb the rest of her family. “You’re a little general aren’t you?”

When she re-entered the bedroom Alec was sitting up, looking around for her with sleepy concern. “Are you okay? Why are you up?” he whispered when he finally spotted her.

Rose glanced behind her to the bathroom and then to the clock on their nightstand. “I slept 12 hours and your kid is having no more of it.”

“Love how they’re only my kids when they’re being unpleasant,” he remarked sarcastically as he threw his legs off the bed. He turned back to tuck Daisy in more firmly, and then walked over to Rose.

“How are you doing?”

“I’m hungry.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“I know,” Rose turned on her heel and glided out of the room, “but I’m hungry.”

Alec tried and failed to hide his disgust as he followed her into the kitchen to find her heating up the leftover sesame chicken. “It’s 7 o’clock in the morning,” he said dryly.

Rose glared at him. “Tell that to your kid,” she said, and then proceeded to grab a jar of pickles from the fridge and a bag of marshmallows from the pantry.

The microwave beeped and she grabbed a plate so that she could mix all three of the things together. She jabbed her fork into a piece of chicken and speared a marshmallow on top of it, dipping it in pickle juice before placing it into her mouth and raising her brows at her husband—daring him to say something about it.

“I don’t remember you having cravings with Daisy,” he commented lightly instead.

“Bananas,” Rose reminded him, and then perked up. “Speaking of which…” she turned to grab the fruit in question off the counter, but thankfully kept it as a side rather than mixing it into her already disgusting concoction.

Alec nodded and started pouring himself a bowl of cereal. He waited until she had eaten the majority of her “breakfast” before speaking again. “Am I allowed to ask how you’re doing yet?”

She shrugged noncommittally at that, keeping her eyes trained on her food. “I’m fine… I guess. I don’t know. I don’t know what to think. Or do…” she sighed and looked back up to him. “What happened after?”

Alec took a deep breath. “They both already knew,” he told her, knowing he couldn’t keep it a secret. “Apparently Jimmy has been following Daisy around and she and Tom snuck into my office to find out who he is. They read the file.”

Rose’s head fell into her hands. “Oh God.”

“I know, I’m sorry.” 

“They’re gonna be traumatized.”

“They’re strong kids,” Alec argued, and moved so that he was standing next to her. “They’re more worried about you.”

Rose blinked at that and glanced around. “Where is Tom?”

“He left with Ellie last night.”

She pulled her chin back in surprise. “Ellie was here?”

He nodded. “Tom called her over. There was a whole big tearful reunion and everything. Lots of apologies.”

“Oh God, does Ellie know now too?”

Alec grimaced. “I had to.”

Rose screwed her eyes shut and fell forward into his chest. “Yeah,” she managed, her voice small.

“I’m sorry.”

“I know. It’s not your fault.”

She let out a long breath after a few moments. “Well… I guess at least if anything it brought Tom and Ellie back together. That’s a good thing.”

A sense of awe washed over Alec at that and he held his wife tighter. He would never not be amazed at her ability to find the bright side in  _ everything. _ He placed a kiss to the top of her head. “I love you so much,” he whispered. “I promise you I’m going to fix this.”

 

Rose went back upstairs to shower and Alec was cleaning up the dishes when he heard rapping on the terrace door and peered around the corner to see Olly Stevens standing outside.

His eyes narrowed as he slid the door back. “What do you want?” he asked gruffly.

“I heard about what happened—” he started, but Alec cut him off with groan and an eye roll as he turned away from the young reporter. Olly just followed him persistently into the house. “One of my sources had a picture of the guy. I found a sketch of him in an old archive of  _ The Times. _ Thought it looked a lot like Rose’s work… seemed a bit of a coincidence.”

Alec rounded on him at that. “Does your editor know you’re here?” he asked condescendingly.

“Y’know I'm a bit fed up with the way you talk to me,” Olly crossed his arms in front of him. “Is he dangerous? Why's he here? I think you know.”

“Leave this alone,” Alec warned him.

“Why? He might have a story to tell. I'm just doing you the courtesy of asking you first.”

Alec shook his head in obvious disgust. “You people, you think you're saving the world. But you just make it harder to live in. Piss off! Go on!” he shouted, waving towards the still open door:

Olly clenched his jaw and sent one last scathing look towards the detective before walking out.

 

Alec looked up from where he was sitting next to Ellie, acting as an additional barrier to the glass separating her and Joe (and trying not to throw as many worried glances towards Rose as he really wanted to), as he heard bickering coming in the form of Maggie and Oliver.

“You posted this this morning?” she asked incredulously. 

“Yeah.”

“Without even running it past me? Without even  _ telling _ me you're doing this?”

“It's online only! You said I could post online only!” he whined defensively.

“You are getting above your station,” she growled, and Olly walked off as she turned towards Alec, holding out her phone and looking at him apologetically. “I didn’t know.”

Alec’s brow furrowed as a regretfully familiar face stared back him, juxtaposed next to a sketch Rose had done 14 years ago and a large headline proclaiming: CONVICTED MURDERER MOVES TO BROADCHURCH.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, your comments mean the world to me ❤︎


	6. Chapter 6

Olly had somehow managed to confirm Alec had been the arresting officer, but the short piece remained thankfully devoid of any mention of Rose.

He pressed his lips together, and glanced up to his wife worriedly before sharing a look with Ellie.

“All rise!” the officer ordered, cutting off whatever any of them were going to say as the judge entered and Maggie had to scurry off to her place.

Once they were all seated, Sharon stood up to address the court. “The defense calls Susan Wright.”

There was audible mumbling amongst the Broadchurch residences as the woman whom none of the had seen in months suddenly reappeared in the courtroom. Ellie and Alec looked worriedly to each other before glancing surreptitiously towards Nigel, who somehow looked like he wanted to both scream and hide at the same time.

“Would you please give your full name to the court?” Sharon began as Susan took her place at the witness stand.

“Susan Wright.”

“And you were living at Tides Caravan Park on July 18th, 2013?”

“I was.”

“Miss Wright, where were you in the early hours of the morning on July 18th, 2013?”

“I was walking my dog, Vince, on the beach at Broadchurch. I have a caravan nearby.”

“And did you see anything significant on the beach that morning?”

“I saw a boat come in and a man carrying the body of a young boy. Then he laid it on the beach.”

“Did you recognise the man carrying the body?”

“Yeah, I did.”

“And can you name that man for the court?”

The silence that followed that question was likely only a few seconds long, but it seemed to stretch on endlessly. The entire court held their breath as she nodded.

“It was Nigel Carter,” she finally answered. “He's my son, and he's sitting over there.”

All heads turned to Nigel at that, and he was glaring daggers at the woman claiming to be his mother as he shook his head angrily.

 

Beth shook Nigel off quickly after court let out and went chasing after Rose (which really should not have been as hard as it was considering her best friend was nearly 4 months pregnant). “Hey,” she panted when she finally caught up to her. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you.”

“Oh, yeah, sorry.” Rose looked around anxiously as she replied, making Beth tilt her head worriedly. “It’s been a bit of a crazy week, y’know.”

Beth screwed her mouth to the side and glanced out the corner of her eye towards the courtroom where her husband’s best friend was still fervently denying killing her son while simultaneously planning the murder of the mother he hadn’t known he had.

Rose, however, looked about a million miles away from their current surroundings. “I heard about what happened,” Beth started, kneeling slightly to get her attention back, “at the restaurant. Are you okay? Was it that guy Olly posted about?”

Her head snapped around at that. “What guy did Olly post about? How does Olly know anything?”

Beth’s brow furrowed. “I don’t know. He’s Olly, innit he? And it’s Broadchurch. The article didn’t say anything. Just that he’s some bloke Alec arrested in London a while back.”

Rose pressed her lips together, looking quite an awful lot like she wanted to cry. “I… I don’t… I can’t…” she stuttered, and then jumped out of her skin as Alec put a hand on her shoulder.

“Whoa, sorry sorry,” Alec apologised quickly. Ellie was standing just behind him, and Beth made short awkward eye contact with her before looking away hurriedly.

“It’s fine, sorry. I’m just a bit on edge. I keep thinking—” she cut herself off. “Can we just go pick up Daisy?”

“Rose—” Beth started to protest.

“Sorry, Beth, we’ll catch up later, yeah?” And she was gone with Alec before Beth could get another word in, leaving her and Ellie on their own.

They stood uncomfortably silent for a few moments, determinedly not looking at each other, until Ellie mumbled, “Right, I’m just gonna…” and started walking off.

“Wait,” Beth found herself speaking before she could decide if she actually wanted to or not, and Ellie ground herself to halt in obvious surprise. “Is… is Rose all right?”

Ellie looked as uncomfortable with the question as Beth did asking it. They both knew this wasn’t how it was supposed to be—Rose was _Beth’s_ best friend, as it was, besides also well… everything else.

“Um…” she glanced to her side as if looking for an escape route. “I don’t actually… something’s happened—did happen, last Friday—is still happening, really. And they’ve been sort of… dealing with it. They don’t want anyone to know.”

“But… you do?” Beth couldn’t help but sound annoyed.

“Not because she told me. Tom found out and—”

“ _Tom_ knows?” she interrupted incredulously.

“Yes, well, Daisy found out, and Tom was there. And it sort of upset him. And they couldn’t very well return to me my upset child and tell him not to tell me what it was that was upsetting him.”

“I thought Tom wasn’t speaking to you?” Beth asked rather tactlessly.

Ellie pulled her chin back in offense. “He is now,” she grit through her teeth.

Beth’s temperature flared suddenly at that. “Well it’s all just working out for you then, isn’t it?” she threw the words at her. “Wasn’t enough your husband killing my son, was it? Had to go and steal my best friend while you were at it!”

Ellie’s mouth fell open, and a hand landed on Beth’s arm. She turned around to see Chloe and the rest of the courthouse staring at her.

 

Alec glanced down at his mobile while they waited for Daisy to be called out of class. There was a message from Ellie. **-Well, Beth’s just shouted at me in front of God and everybody.**

**-What?**

**-She thinks I’ve stolen Rose from her.**

Alec had no idea how to respond to that as it was so outside of his realm of understanding that the words just barely computed any sort of meaning at all. It occurred to him, of course, that he could ask for further clarification, but it seemed rather possible that that would only prove to irritate her.

**-Do you want us to pick Tom up as well?** he asked instead.

Ellie, apparently, was unsurprised by his complete avoidance of the subject. **-No, I’ve got him** , she replied readily, though he imagined it was prefaced by an exasperated eye roll.

He looked up to see Rose chewing on her thumbnail as she continued to stare at the picture of Jimmy that Olly had posted, and the short 200-word blurb (it hardly constituted as an ‘article’) that really didn’t actually say much about the man at all.

“It’s not that bad,” he told her again.

“Don’t act like you aren’t pissed.”

“Oh, I’m going to hang him by the bollocks in the middle of town square and cut his fingers off for good measure,” Alec replied smoothly, earning just the barest of smiles from Rose. “But it’s nothing for you to worry about.”

“It’s provocative.”

“He won’t do anything.”

“We need to get a restraining order.”

“Okay.”

Rose’s head snapped up, surprised at the speed at which he’d agreed. “That’s more time in court.”

“Well it’s not like it would be wasted.” Alec stared down at her curiously. “You and Daisy are my number one priorities,” he told her earnestly, and then rocked back on his heels as she stared up at him with watery eyes. “Besides, we probably won’t need a restraining order—if we report anything his parole officer will get involved and he’ll be thrown back in prison.”

Rose seemed to shrink back in on herself at that. “That’s only 28 days.”

“And he’ll know that if he comes back again the same thing will happen.”

“So that’ll just be our life then, will it?” she argued. “Counting days until he shows up again and going through the same process every month for the next 60 years?”

“Well I doubt—”

“Alec,” Rose cut off his quip warningly, and his mouth snapped shut. She let out a long tired breath. “We’ll talk about it at home.”

 

“We could… reopen the case,” Alec suggested finally that evening after going back and forth for a while. “Press him with all the charges we’d dropped previously.”

Rose looked rather a lot like she was gonna be sick. “Is that even possible?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted.

 

The next morning Jocelyn got to cross examine Susan.

“When was the last time you had your eyesight tested?” she asked. “What about your night vision? Ever had that tested?”

“Never had a test,” Susan answered rather snarkishly. “But I eat a lot of carrots.”

“So, you have no idea how far you can see either in the daytime or at night?”

“I can see the moon,” she said flippantly, “and that's a fair distance.”

“Hm. Very good,” Jocelyn replied diplomatically while both the defense and judge looked unimpressed with the witness’s attitude. “Can we turn to your son, Mr Carter? You hadn't seen him for 28 years, had you?”

“I know what he looks like, if that's what you're getting at.”

“In Mr Carter's sworn statement to the police he says, ‘I don't even know who she is. I don't want anything to do with her.’”

Susan shrugged. “Police got it wrong. Police get it wrong all the time. It's a fact.”

“It's not, actually,” the judge cut in. “Stick to answering the questions you've been asked, Miss Wright.”

“Okay!” Susan seemed to just have barely kept from rolling her eyes, as the rest of her body did what would be the equivalent to the action.

Jocelyn smirked to herself as she caught the distressed faces of her opponents. “When you first saw Danny's body on the beach, why didn't you call for an ambulance?”

“A bit late by then.” She was either unaware of or completely uncaring of the Latimers listening to her every word.

“You seem very certain,” Jocelyn challenged. “Did you check? Are you medically qualified?”

“It was obvious what had happened.”

“Why didn't you call the police?”

There was a bit of a pause before she answered, “I didn't wanna dump Nigel in it,” followed by a loud derisive snort from the man in question.

Jocelyn sent a significant look to the jury before moving on. “And how do you explain police forensics finding four cigarette butts with your DNA on them next to Danny's body?”

“I've smoked a lot of cigarettes on that beach.”

“And why did you take the skateboard?” She reiterated the same point Sharon had made earlier, though from a different angle.

“I thought it might get nicked,” she answered again.

Jocelyn put her palms out either side of her. “It did get nicked, didn't it? By you.”

“I thought the family would want it back.”

Jocelyn raised her brows to indicate that she felt this was bullshit, and glanced down to her notes before moving on. “Do you know who Maggie Radcliffe is?” she asked.

“No.”

“The editor of the _Broadchurch Echo_ ,” she motioned to the woman. “Whose office you broke into around 11:37pm on the 24th of July, 2013, and whom you threatened by saying, and I quote: ‘I know men who would rape you’?”

“Not true,” Sudan spoke over the rumbling that new piece of evidence brought to the court.

“What's not true? You don't know men like that or you do?”

“I never said it,” she spit out.

“Why would she lie?”

“She's a journalist.”

“Right!” Jocelyn had clearly caught her. “Journalists and police lie, and you're the only honest woman here!”

She shrugged, “If you like.”

“Isn't it true that every word you have told this court since you stood up in the witness box is a lie?”

“No.”

“You didn't see Nigel Carter. You saw Joe Miller—“

“No!”

“—But you want to pin the blame on the son who's rejected you.”

“No!”

“You've lied to this court time and again, just as you've lied to the police!”

“No!”

“Why should the jury believe a single word you say?”

Susan sat back in her chair, crossing her arms in front of her and sneering at the barrister. “You ain't all that,” she said, and it was the final nail in her testimony’s coffin.

 

The entire rest of the day in court was just one character witness after another, most of whom hadn’t actually spoken to Joe in the last decade—a fact which Jocelyn clearly grew tired of pointing out. It became obvious by the end of it that the defense had no intentions of letting Joe Miller anywhere near the box and into Jocelyn’s line of fire.

After they were finally dismissed, Ellie and Alec stood around waiting for Rose to reappear when Susan Wright suddenly felt the need to stop in front of them.

“Chin up,” she said to Ellie condescendingly.

Ellie glared at her. “Did you enjoy yourself, lying in there?”

Susan shrugged noncommittally. “It's not my husband in the dock,” she said, and then smirked. “I suppose you knew all along.”

“No!”

“Of course you did,” she sneered, clearly enjoying herself now as she got to throw the words back at her. “We all know. We all turn a blind eye.”

Ellie shook her head vehemently. “Not me. That's not what happened.”

“Course not… You just keep telling yourself that,” she replied with a nod before walking away.

A long silence followed, and then Alec asked awkwardly. “Are you all right?”

“They'll always think I knew,” she answered quietly. “No matter what the verdict, they'll always think I was in on it.”

“Just give them time.”

She rounded on him at that, making the much taller man step back. “Oh, brilliant! Thanks for that shitty platitude! That's fixed everything!”

Alec just blinked at her a few times until she took a deep breath and changed the subject.

 

Late that afternoon, Jocelyn jumped as she looked over from where she was sitting listening to audio recordings of files to find DI Alec Tyler-Hardy standing in her open doorway.

“Oh, for heaven's sake!” she exclaimed, “I need a lock put on that gate!”

“You busy?” he asked by way of greeting.

“Of course I'm busy! I'm in the middle of a trial!” she pushed the papers away in emphasis. “What do you want?”

It was then that she noticed he was clutching a file in his hands. “I’m seeking legal advice,” he answered, handing it over.

Squinting at him, she took it and motioned for him to sit down and he sat there quietly as she began to flip through it. She couldn’t read anything very well, but what she could make out and all the images painted for her the basics of the story.

“Anyone would think I was a high-street solicitor,” she commented mildly, and then, “What happened then, at the trial?”

“Plea deal,” her neighbor grumbled. “Dropped the domestic abuse charges so that he’d plea guilty.”

“Rose didn’t want to testify?” she hazarded a guess.

Alec shook his head. “Couldn’t. And in those days…”

“Yes,” Jocelyn glanced at that date. “He almost certainly would have gotten off. How long did he get?”

“14 years.”

“So…”

“He’s back.”

“And?”

“Stalking Daisy and making thinly veiled threats,” he answered. Jocelyn raised her brows and waited for him to continue. “We… don’t know what to do.”

“Press charges.”

Alec let out a long suffering sigh. “Not much has changed in the last 14 years in terms of Rose’s willingness to talk about it—not like that, anyway. She knows even better now what a trial does to people lives.”

“A restraining order wouldn’t require a jury. It could be done quietly. It would be granted, he’d be back in prison for 28 days for violating parole, and after that breaking the order would result in up to 5 more years jail time.”

“And we’d have to report it every five years?”

“You think he’d come back?”

“Yes.”

Jocelyn pressed her lips together at his complete lack of hesitation. “If he’s really as dangerous as you seem to believe—and just looking at this file I’m inclined to agree with you—there _is_ enough here to reopen the case. There is no statute on these sorts of crimes.”

Alec shook his head tiredly, leaning forward to run his hands through his hair. “We couldn’t do that without the whole of Broadchurch learning about what happened.”

“She’s nothing to be ashamed about!”

“I know,” Alec’s jaw clenched. “But it’s still… private.” He sighed. “You know what happens to women who come forward with these things—especially in small towns. And Rose couldn’t stand people looking at her and only seeing that.”

Jocelyn nodded slowly. He was right, of course. She imagined the only reason she was even learning of this now was a combination of desperation and belief that she was professional enough not to let it affect her view of Rose.

“Leave this with me,” she finally decided, placing her hand on the file. “I’ll make some calls. See if we can’t handle this quietly.”

“Thank you,” Alec let out gratefully.

She nodded, and then spoke before he could stand up to leave. “Is everything all right? Is there anything else I can do? For Rose or Daisy?”

Alec seemed to contemplate her for a few moments. “You got kids?” he finally asked.

Jocelyn attempted to keep up with his train of thought. “Never married,” she answered.

“That through choice?”

She tensed. “What is this, a police interview?”

“No. Sorry.” He started to stand up again.

“Well,” Jocelyn spoke before she could stop herself. “There was a time… but things were complicated… and I made them more so. I was at a point when I should have been strong and I wasn't. And I missed the person I was supposed to be with.”

“Did you ever tell them?”

“No.”

“Maybe you should.”

Jocelyn hummed. “It's always easy to recognise mistakes in hindsight. Much harder to fix them now,” she replied wisely.

Alec glanced down to the file still beneath her hand. “Yeah, that I understand,” he said, and then, “Anyway, What's your sense of the trial?”

Jocelyn paused for a while. It occurred to her then that this was Alec attempting to be social, to make conversation—make friends, even—and the idea made her smile a bit to herself. She and Alec were similar in many ways—their shared inability to understand people outside of their lines of work being one of them. She quite liked the idea of the two of them simultaneously floundering around social cues. It might actually be refreshing, having someone else with whom to sympathise with on the daily confusing nuances of humanity.

“Susan Wright was a mistake for the defence,” she answered, having thought through of all of this in just a few seconds. “It makes them look like amateurs. Not going into the witness box is going to damage Miller's credibility—especially considering that confession. But now Sharon has petitioned to call Mark.”

Alec nodded slowly, contemplating this. “And there’s still an hour missing from his timeline that night,” he filled in her hesitancy.

“Exactly.”

“He hasn’t told you?”

Jocelyn shook her head. “I plan on making him before letting him on the stand, that’s for sure.”

He gave her a look that couldn’t well be described. It was hard, but still somehow pleading. “Joe has got to be convicted,” he said.

She snorted. “I don't need you to tell me that. I'll do the best I can with what I have.” She looked down to the file as she said that, indicating that she didn’t just mean Joe Miller’s trial, and Alec nodded gratefully in understanding.

 

Saturday morning Alec was walking through the field adjacent to his house, Ellie trailing along behind him with Fred in his pushchair. All around them lights illuminated the morning air and carnival music floated out from the rides.

“Ooh, bumper cars, Hardy!” Ellie was spinning around with wide-eyed wonder, looking not unlike the stereotypical kid in a candy shop. “Oh, I think this is brilliant! Did you not know this was gonna be behind your house?”

“The realtor forgot to mention it when we took it on,” he grumbled, speeding up his pace. To be fair, there was a great deal of distance between the fair and the Tyler-Hardy home, but it did inhibit the usual walking path into town.

Ellie ignored his sour tone. “Oh, Fred, we could go on the teacups, couldn't we?” she said brightly. “We could take Uncle Alec!”

Alec did glance behind him at that to find Ellie and Fred both grinning up at him. “Unc’ Alec!” the toddler enthused, clapping his hands together.

Ellie looked positively _thrilled_ at the disarmed look that brought to Alec’s face, and she laughed maniacally.

Rose and Daisy were in the kitchen making breakfast when they finally reached the top of the hill. “Hello!” Rose greeted happily, wiping flour off on her jeans before pointing to a large pile of cardboard in the sitting room. “Those were all the boxes I could scrounge up from our move and what I had laying around in my classrooms.”

“Oh, brilliant. You sure you don’t need them?”

“Nah, they’re just talking up space,” Rose waved her off. “What do you need them for though?”

Ellie smiled. “I’m moving back to Broadchurch,” she informed her happily. “Got my old job back and everything.”

“Well it helps that you know your boss,” Alec added in dryly, earning various snorts and laughs from the girls.

“That’s wonderful Ellie! I’m really pleased for you!” Rose told her earnestly.

“Yep, and Tom and I decided we’re taking back the house as well. We’re gonna clean it out and renovate everything—new paint all that—make it ours again.”

“That’s incredible, Ellie, good for you.”

Ellie looked as though she’d just received a gold star, and was just barely refraining from literally patting herself on the back.

 

By Monday morning Ellie had hired out builders for her home, which meant she, Tom, and Fred, were displaced into the Tyler-Hardy spare bedrooms. (“We can get a hotel room, really.” “Shut up, Miller.”)

Rose couldn’t be in court as she’d only taken a week off of work for it. So Alec and Ellie carpooled to court (making a stop at Fred’s daycare) while Rose took the kids with her to school.

Which mean Beth was faced with having to watch Mark testify on her own.

She turned as Mark affirmed, feeling fully alone despite having Nige and Paul either side of her, and spotted Becca Fischer taking a seat in the row behind her in the seat normally occupied by Rose.

“What the living fuck,” Beth growled, making anyone in her immediate vicinity turn and draw in sharp breaths.

Despite the prosecution’s case having ended, Mark was still a witness for them, so Jocelyn got to question him first. “Mr Latimer, how well do you know Nigel Carter?” she began.

“Very well. He's worked with me four years now.”

“Do you trust him?”

Mark looked over to him. “With my life,” he answered, and then turned back to Jocelyn. “And my son's life.”

“So what do you say to the accusation that Susan Wright saw Nigel Carter carrying your son's body the night of his death?”

“She's obviously got two bald blokes mixed up, cos it wasn't Nige.”

Jocelyn nodded smally to indicate her agreement to the jury before moving on. “Where were you on the night of your son's death, Mr Latimer?”

Mark kept his eyes trained firmly on the back wall. “I was with Becca Fisher, the owner of the Traders Hotel.”

“Were you having an affair?”

“No,” he answered automatically. “It was the first time anything had happened.”

“Did you have sex that night?”

“Yes.”

“Where?”

A beat. “In her car.”

Beth dropped her head, taking deep breaths and gripping the side of her chair for support.

“Then what did you do?”

“Then she drove me back to the cliff-top car park, I picked up my car and we went our separate ways.”

“And did you go home immediately?”

Mark paused for a few moments. “No, it was about an hour, an hour and a half later.”

“Where did you go during that time?” Jocelyn went on, and raised her brows as Mark remained stubbornly silent this time. “Mr Latimer, _where were you?_ ”

He blew a stiff breath out through his nose. “I drove through the vale and I parked up on the hill… And I started writing this—I don't know—note, letter.”

“A letter to whom?”

“To Beth, my wife.” He didn’t look at her.

“Why would you be writing a letter to your wife at that time of the morning?”

The seconds ticked on and Beth felt her ears ringing in the silence. “I was saying it was over,” he finally admitted and what little semblance of calm she had managed to maintain shattered in an instant. “That I'd met someone else, that our marriage was done. I'd gone a bit mad. I was like like a kid,  giddy with a fling. I'm not proud.”

Beth barely heard the last part. She was already running out of the courtroom as her vision blurred.

Ellie made brief horrified eye contact with Alec before making the snap decision to chase after her.

She found her sobbing in the stairwell. Curled up in the corner as tears streamed down her face and loud cries echoed through the empty space.

Ellie slid down the wall beside her. “Come on, Beth. Come here,” she whispered, pulling her towards her.

Beth only struggled for a second before burying her face in her oldest friend’s shoulder, sobs continuing to wrack her body.

“It's all right. It's all right,” Ellie soothed. “It's not Mark. This is not Mark. This is Joe doing this to us. We won't let him win, okay?”

They stayed like that for a while, until finally Beth regained control of her breathing, and she straightened up, determinedly wiping the tears from her face.

“I’ve gotta go back,” she said.

“Are you sure? You don’t have to.”

“I do.”

“Okay.” Ellie stood up and held her hand out for Beth to take. She did.

When they got back inside, it was Sharon who was questioning him. “It's quite a coincidence that neither you nor Nigel Caner have an alibi for around the time of your son's death, isn't it?”

Mark shook his head. “That's the way it was.”

“You admit that you were at the car park next to the cliff-top hut around the time your son was killed?”

“I was, yeah.”

“And what's the distance between the car park and the hut?”

“I don't know. 50 yards?”

Sharon’s voice got louder as she reiterated, “You were _50 yards_ away from where your son was killed?”

Mark’s jaw clenched. “Yes.”

“At almost _exactly the time_ he was killed?”

He sniffed. “Yeah.”

“So, from the hut, it's possible that Danny could have seen you with Becca Fisher that night?”

Mark, again, attempted not to answer, keeping his lips firmly pressed together. Sharon raised her brows, pulling her chin back as she glanced from the jury to the judge.

“You need to answer, Mr Latimer,” the judge told him.

He spoke quietly, “It's possible, yeah.”

“Isn't it true that because Danny saw you with Becca that night—”

“I said it was possible, not that it happened,” Mark interrupted angrily.

“—that you strangled him in that clifftop hut—”

“No.”

“—and then called your mate and colleague, Nige Carter, to dispose of the body—”

“None of that happened!”

“—who was then seen by Susan Wright?”

“Not true!” Mark slammed his hand down on the witness stand. “None of that is true! I did not kill my son!”

 

Beth slammed the car door behind her and wheeled around as Mark followed her out. “How is this a marriage?” she demanded angrily. “You share nothing! You keep everything locked away from me!”

“Not _from_ you— It's not about you!”

“Why isn't it about me? Why can't you _make_ it about me, just for once?” Beth shouted back, and then rocked back on her heels as he didn’t answer. “Why are we together, Mark? ls it just because Danny died?”

“No,” he denied quickly.

“Because if it is, don't bother. I don't need you. I can do without you.”

He pulled his chin back, squinting at her incredulously. “Don't talk to me like that.”

“What are you gonna do about it? You gonna write me a letter?”

“It's better than all your bloody talking about it and nothing ever changing!”

Beth’s nostrils flared. “If you're gonna stay, sort yourself out. Tell me everything, or piss off.”

She started walking back to the car, intent on leaving him there on the side of the road miles away from their house. She turned around just before reaching the driver’s side door. “And, by the way, if this trial collapses now, it's because of you.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posting early because I'm calling the realtor office tomorrow in hopes of getting into this really great apartment. It's honestly the only price I can afford in Boston and it's actually in a decent area and is super nice. Like, a thousands times better than I thought I could get. It's really competitive though so I'm just asking that you pray for me and in general send good vibes my way. I've been so stressed about finding somewhere to live for months and I get kicked out of where I am now in early May. Really just trying not to be homeless. Thoughts and prayers much appreciated! ❤︎❤︎
> 
> (Only one more chapter until the epilogue!)


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> trigger warnings: talk of rape and domestic abuse, PTSD

Beth was strapping Lizzie into the car seat, intent on getting as far away from Mark as possible, when Chloe came out of the house. 

“Mum, what are you doing?”

She looked up. “We’re going to Rose’s, are you coming?”

“What, like for dinner?” she asked, and Beth shrugged noncommittally. Chloe looked around in obvious confusion. “Where’s Dad?”

“He’s not invited. Are you coming or not?”

Which is how the three of them ended up adding the fourth car at the Tyler-Hardy residence at 6:30pm on a Monday night.

They were welcomed in without question. Chloe shoved her overnight bag in Daisy’s room, and Tom valiantly volunteered to take the sofa so that Beth and Lizzie could have his room.

The rest of them started working on dinner while Beth and Rose took refuge out on the terrace.

“I just feel so alone,” Beth told her. “Like every horrible thing that I could have ever possibly imagined is coming true. I’m living my own worst nightmare and I can’t wake up. And I don’t even have anyone beside me to help.”

Rose let out a long breath. She felt horrible. Obviously she had reasons for leaving Beth in the lurch this last week, and she hadn’t meant to, clearly, but that didn’t make it any better.

She closed her eyes for a second, steeling herself. “When I was 16 I quit school to follow around a boy who said he loved me,” she started, not looking at Beth as she spoke, but seeing the perplexed look she was receiving from her friend out of the corner of her eye. She powered through however, “He got drunk a lot, but so did a lot of other people, so I didn’t really think much of it… and then a few months later he started hitting me.”

Rose glanced over as she heard Beth suck in a sharp breath, but she kept on. “He always apologised. Blamed it on the alcohol—or the drugs eventually. I kept forgiving him.” She kept her eyes trained firmly on the horizon as she continued. “He started raping me too. Wouldn’t listen when I said no, would knock me out if I struggled—that sort of thing. He didn’t even apologise for that. I just did it for him. Blamed it on the drugs and alcohol for him.

“He wouldn’t let me get a job, which turned into not letting me have friends, which turned into not letting me leave the house… Except I would, whenever he was gone or asleep. I’d sneak out to pawn off more and more of my stuff so I could pay the rent. Problem was he found out. That’s when he started tying me up, keeping me locked in the bathroom. Got a gun, somehow—I still don’t know. Threatened me with it.”

“Rose—” Beth started, but Rose shook her head and her mouth snapped closed.

“Obviously we got evicted. Ended up living in a crack den. Nearly a year in my friend found me. Tied up cos Jimmy was out. He tried getting me out of there but Jimmy showed up last second. Killed him right in front of me.”

Beth made a strangled sort of sound in the back of her throat and Rose finally looked over to her.

“That’s how I met Alec,” she whispered. “Covered in my best mate’s blood. Alec was the first officer on the scene.”

Beth shook her head. “Rose… I don’t… I can’t… was that the man? The one Olly posted about?”

Rose nodded. “He was let out of prison last week and came here looking for me. Poor timing, I know.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Rose’s head finally snapped around to look her best friend in the eye. “I’m going to be okay.  _ We’re _ going to be okay. I know what living through hell is like, Beth. I know these are very different circumstances, but I can understand—I can. You’re not alone. I’m sorry I made you feel like you were.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“I know.”

Beth’s voice was small. “I just assumed your life has always been as perfect as it seems.”

Rose laughed at that. “No. Definitely not. And I know what me and Alec seem like to you and everybody, but we’re really not perfect at all. We fight—like real proper screaming at each other rows—but we love and respect each other enough not to keep secrets, or let momentary anger ruin years of happiness.” Rose tilted her head. “I like to think it’s because we started out in just about the worst situation imaginable. If we could work ourselves out of that we could work ourselves out of anything.”

“How did you?” Beth cut in. “I mean... how did you go from being a victim he interviewed to being his wife?”

 

…

_ [April, 1999] _

Alec didn’t look up from his paperwork as he picked up the ringing phone on his desk. “What?” he answered gruffly.

“Alec?” A female voice answered, and Alec nearly dropped the phone in surprise. He’d know that voice anywhere. The one that haunted his dreams every night.

“Rose?” he asked incredulously.

She let out a tinkling laugh at his tone. “Yeah, hi. Um sorry, I guess this might be silly. I know we haven’t spoken since that first night in the hospital but… I just wanted to let you know I’m okay. I actually… wow this sounds daft now that I’m doing it.” She laughed at herself but powered through. “I found a church. Here in London. They let me stay in one of the rooms as I got back on my feet. I started teaching Sunday school even. I’m… I’m better now. I’ve got a job in a shop and I’m going to school to get my teaching degree.”

Alec opened his mouth to try and say something but no actual words managed to come out.

“Anyway,” Rose went on. “I’ve been thinking that I couldn’t have done this if you hadn’t found me. Even if I hadn’t died I would’ve just kept living that same terrible life. I guess… I don’t know. Everything happens for a reason. That’s what I have to tell myself anyway. I just… I wanted to let you know. That it wasn’t a waste saving me. I’m doing something with my life.”

Alec cleared his throat against the onslaught of emotions. More than anything right now he just really wished he could tell DI Grant to piss off. “That’s really good to hear, Rose. I’m glad for you,” he finally managed.

He could practically feel her proud smile through the phone. “Yeah, yeah me too,” she agreed, laughing again. “Anyway, maybe I’ll see you around?”

“Well seeing as I mostly only see cops and criminals on a daily basis I seriously doubt we’ll be running into each other.”

Rose chuckled at his attempt at a joke and he appreciated the effort. “You need to get out more,” she teased him.

“Yeah I’m not really an ‘out’ sort of person,” he replied dryly. 

“Well, we all need friends. Me more than most at the moment… so if you ever want a break from the cops and criminals, you can usually find me at Saint Mary’s church.”

“Yeah, yeah maybe I’ll stop by sometime.” Alec agreed, and then saw the call waiting light flash on his phone. “I’ve gotta go though right now,” he sighed, hating himself as she said goodbye quickly.

 

_ [May] _

As it turns out there are upwards of fifty different churches in London called “Saint Mary’s” and Alec spent the better part of the next two weeks visiting close to half of them before he finally found Rose.

He almost didn’t recognise her, all smiles and unmarred skin. She lit up the entire room. Almost a completely different person, though he spotted her instantly. 

“I was beginning to think you weren’t gonna show up,” she said by way of greeting.

“Do you know how many of the churches around here are called Saint Mary’s?” he complained, shaking his head. “You certainly never make finding you easy.”

Rose’s hand flung to her lips as she realised her mistake. “Oh my God, I am so sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he smirked, “I like a good puzzle, me.” He mentally kicked himself at how absolutely pathetic that sounded, but Rose laughed at his dorkishness. He cleared his throat awkwardly. “Anyway, I’m on my lunch hour, d’you fancy some fish and chips?”

She grinned brightly up at him, gracing him with a sort of tongue touched smile that he’d never seen before and nearly gave him a heart attack as she practically glowed with it. “Sounds wonderful,” she said, making him feel like a literal angel had just agreed to get lunch with him.  _ Was his heart supposed to beat this fast? _

 

_ [June] _

Alec squinted over Rose’s shoulder as she circled yet another dingey studio flat in a bad neighborhood. “No,” he said again.

Rose rolled her eyes at her best friend. “I have to stop living at the church eventually, Alec.”

“Yeah, and you should do that when you can afford to not also be in constant danger of getting murdered,” he retorted, Scottish accent even thicker than normal as he sassed her.

Rose pressed her lips together stubbornly and dialed the landlord’s number into Alec’s mobile, ignoring his annoyed grumbles.

 

_ [August] _

Rose hadn’t slept more than a couple of hours a night in nearly a year now. She couldn’t  _ get _ to sleep without talking to Alec, and she was paying more for her mobile than she was in rent.

To remedy that she’d started finding every excuse she could to be at his flat late and just happen to fall asleep on his couch.

She’d forgotten that he was a detective.

“So I wasn’t going to say anything—”Alec started.

“Mm probably best you didn’t then,” Rose interrupted him lightly, not looking up from the paper she had in front of her and shoving another spoonful of (his) cereal into her mouth.

Alec rolled his eyes. “Rose, you haven’t been to your own flat in two weeks. Call me daft but personally I wouldn’t want to pay for a place that I’m not actually living in. Especially on your budget.”

Rose ignored that rather misplaced jab at her paycheque—she’d gotten used to his complete inability to grasp normal human social interaction by now.

Alec sighed as she still refused to answer. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on? Or should I just go ahead and invest in another sofa?”

“And you won’t believe me if I say your sofa is just more comfortable than my bed?” she tried weakly.

Alec gave her a dead sort of look that she’d come to know very well in the last six months. “Would you prefer if I told you what I  _ think _ is going on and you can either admit to it or tell me to piss off?”

Rose nodded.

“Okay, well, the entire time you were living in the church you looked dead on your feet. I didn’t think much of it at that time given the circumstances, but then you moved into your own place and invested in a mobile phone you don’t need and then proceeded to call me every single night and talk until you could barely form coherent sentences.”

Rose pursed her lips at being evaluated (so accurately). Blokes weren’t supposed to pay this much attention.

“And,” Alec went on, tilting his head, “this is what really brings the theory home for me: you’ve been whining and moaning in your sleep every night, waking up screaming and nearly sending me into cardiac arrest every morning.”

Again, Alec gave her a knowing, challenging look and Rose hung her head as he quirked his brow in indication he would wait for her to answer this time. “I’ve been having night terrors,” she mumbled to the countertop.

“ _ Really? _ ” Alec replied sarcastically. “I never would have guessed.” He walked around the counter and into the kitchen to put his bowl in the sink. “Have you told your therapist?”

Rose wrinkled her nose. “Yeah, she gave me sleeping pills that make me feel all sweaty and disoriented. Like I’ve been in a coma. I’d rather just be tired.”

“Okay, well, you’re welcome to keep sleeping here,” Alec said, leaning against the sink to face her. “ _ If _ you end the lease on your flat.”

Rose smiled brightly at that, hopping up from her seat to fling herself into his arms.

“Oh, again with the hugging—” Alec started to protest.

“You love it, shut up.” Rose grinned up at him, her chin resting on his chest with her arms wrapped firmly around his waist.

Alec huffed in annoyance, but did let his arms fall around her shoulders to hug her back.

 

Alec had been promoted to detective sergeant pretty much right after he’d met Rose, who as a student paying her way through university on a sunday school teacher’s pay, he made about three times as much as. Plus he apparently had some sort of inheritance that he still refused to speak about.

As a result, her wanting to pay half of the rent money ended up being a point of contention.

“Alec, I can afford it. Half the rent here is still less than what I was paying to live on my own. I don’t want to feel like a burden.”

“You aren’t a—”

“But I’d feel like one.” Rose cut off his protest firmly.

“I don’t want to make you pay to sleep on a sofa,” he tried again, already sounding defeated.

Rose rolled her eyes. Her fear had been that him not wanting her to pay would feel like how it did with Jimmy, but it was actually just the opposite. He wasn’t trying to control her; he just had the world’s biggest hero complex. “I don’t need saving anymore, Alec.”

He let out a long breath. “I know that—”

“Do you?”

“ _ Yes, _ Rose. You’re the strongest woman I’ve ever met. I just think it’s stupid for you to pay for something that I’m just fine paying for on my own.”

Rose pressed her lips together, trying not to either smile at the comment or hit him for being so sweet while also at the same time being a stubborn arse. “And if I’m not paying then I don’t feel like your equal. I feel like a charity case.”

Alec looked away at that—she made a good point. “But percentage wise…” he argued weakly.

Rose felt like strangling him. “Zero percent doesn’t make any sense either!”

“Alright fine,” he finally conceded. “But I’m paying the utilities.”

Rose didn’t miss a beat, “Then I’m buying groceries.” 

“You’re insufferable,” Alec grumbled, shaking his head and running his hands through his hair in annoyance.

Rose grinned cheekily up at him. “You love me though,” she told him happily, walking away before he could try and fight with her again.

He did love her.

God, he loved her so much.

 

_ [31 December, 1999] _

Rose was kissing him.

He’s not sure how it happened. One second he was ranting angrily about a case and the next Rose was in his lap.

He didn’t know what to do with his hands, but eventually somehow they landed on her hips and she hummed happily against his lips.

The sound seemed to finally get his brain to start working again. “Wait, Rose—mm wait.” He pulled away from her, but kept his hands firmly around her waist. “What—what’s happening?”

Rose rolled her eyes. “Well nothing right now though I was hoping we’d-”

“No, no, I mean,  _ yes _ , but… why? Why me? Why now?”

She stared at him incredulously for a few seconds. “Oh, you’re gonna make me say it aren’t you?”

He just kept watching her silently, and she sighed.

“Because my New Year’s resolution was to tell you I love you, but then you started talking and I decided I didn’t want to wait another hour.”

Alec opened and closed his mouth a few times at that, fingers curling into her sides instinctively, like he was afraid that if he didn’t hold on she might disappear. “You… you love me?” He asked, like it was the most unbelievable thing he’d ever heard.

Rose squinted at him. “Of course,” she answered, like it was the easiest thing in the world—loving him.

Alec surged up at that to bring her lips back down to his, kissing her passionately. “Rose Tyler,” he breathed as they pulled away again, “I love you.”

 

…

Rose finished giving Beth the truncated 5-minute version of 1999, Alec’s proposal the following year, and Daisy’s surprise arrival in 2002.

“That’s… amazing,” Beth said.

Rose furrowed her brow. “What is?”

Her best friend motioned to the large house behind them. Through the window they could just see Alec helping Daisy and Tom chop vegetables while he balanced Fred on his hip and called ingredients out to Ellie and Chloe at the stove. It was warm and inviting—a scene straight out of the ‘happily ever after’ page of a fairytale. “Out of all that,” Beth whispered, “you built this.”

Rose smiled to herself. “I’ve found,” she started contemplatively, “that beautiful things often come from dark places.”   
  


 

Tuesday morning brought with it closing statements as the trial finally drew to an end. Rose had wormed her way out of one more day of work, and somehow Daisy and Tom had managed to convince the adults to let them come to the courthouse as well.

Their little makeshift amalgamation of a family (including Mark and Nige) took up a considerable portion of the seats as Jocelyn stood up to give her piece.

“What do we know about the defendant?” she asked the jury. “We know he had a violent temper. We know he was in secret communication with Danny. We know he was meeting with Danny in secret. We know the defendant has not been able to give us a satisfactory explanation as to why he had Danny's phone in his possession. Or why he gave Danny five hundred pounds in cash. We know forensics have placed him at the murder scene. You've heard sworn evidence that Joe Miller was seen dumping clothes that night. You have not heard any alibi evidence to place him anywhere else other than at the murder scene.” She paused to tilt her head down, setting them with a serious look. “And we have heard the defendant, Joe Miller, provide an in depth and detailed confession of the events that took place that night. Details only the murderer would know. A confession  _ only the guilty could give. _

“And yet the one person we haven't heard from is the defendant himself.” Jocelyn turned to motion to Joe, whose eyes snapped down to the floor in the presence of her fierce gaze. She turned back to the jury. “It's a short walk from the dock to the witness box,” she told them. “I've counted it to be 13 steps. You may think that if you were falsely accused of a child's murder you'd make that short walk. You may even think you'd  _ run _ there, to reassure the jury of your innocence… But when given the opportunity to give his own account and explanation of the evidence against him, when given a chance to protest his innocence, to shout it from the rooftops, he chooses to stay silent. Instead he allows his lawyers to speculate, to throw red herrings around, to try and distract you from the truth. 

“You may conclude that the reason for all these distortions, and the reason the defendant has not got into that witness box, is because he knows—he knows—he can't defend himself. He's preferred to hide behind the glass, to hide behind the fabricated stories his lawyers are fighting to convince you of.”

She took a deep breath, and again her eyes drifted across the jury, look each of them in the eye individually, convincing them of the truth she was speaking. “In a moment you're going to hear from Ms Bishop, who's going to make many ludicrous suggestions. It's up to you, members of the jury, how seriously you take these. But the Crown's case is that you  _ can be sure _ of the defendant's guilt. You can be sure Joe Miller murdered Daniel Latimer.”

She sat down in a room of loud silence, every single person, jury or otherwise, still hanging on to her every word despite the fact that she was no longer speaking.

It was almost disorienting really, when Sharon started speaking, her voice was no less powerful, but still somehow it lacked a certain conviction. She wasn’t convinced of her own words, but she was determined to convince everyone else of them.

“The Crown need you to be sure. They've given you a version of events. But there's a compelling alternative version of what happened that night. It's not in any dispute that Danny's father, Mark, was 50 yards away from the murder scene. Let's stop and think about that. Mark Latimer had just engaged in illicit sex with a new-found mistress, that had a profound effect on him. Because, according to his own evidence, he composed a letter to his wife, telling her that the marriage was over—that he had found his new soulmate. He interpreted a fumble in a car, as true love.”

Beth’s jaw clenched, her hand shooting out to grab onto Rose’s beside her.

Sharon went on. “Now let's remember that there was a window in the hut, where Danny was, which had a direct view onto the car park… Let's say that Danny saw his dad with his new mistress. Let's say that he ran from the hut, and confronted his dad. As soon as his face popped up at that car window, Mark's dream, Mark's absurd schoolboy fantasy, was in pieces. He was jolted back to the real world. Just picture it: Danny's gonna run to his mum, tell her everything. Mark has a tiny window of opportunity to stop him, to explain, to reassure and persuade him not to tell. Now let's imagine Danny tried to break free, ran back to the hut. Mark follows him. There's an altercation, and in the ensuing tragedy and confusion Mark ends up killing Danny… Can you be sure that  _ didn't _ happen?” She paused dramatically, despite the question itself not being all the compelling. “You also heard evidence that Nigel Carter was seen dumping Danny's body that night. Can you be sure that Mark did not kill Danny and call his workmate and best friend to help him out of a crisis? ”

Mark was looking up to ceiling, shaking his head and fighting back tears. More than a few jury members looked over to see his reaction, taking note of how Rose reached out to squeeze his arm reassuringly.

Sharon then motioned towards Alec and Ellie. “You may also feel that the police investigation was fundamentally flawed. Procedures compromised, personal liaisons got in the way of the truth… Now, it is an undoubted tragedy that a young boy was murdered,” she said, though she didn’t actually sound all that sympathetic. “But it's my job to represent the defendant. And it's my contention that it's impossible to be  _ sure _ that this man is guilty.”

It was an odd sort of juxtaposition. Jocelyn’s listing of facts and evidence compared to Sharon’s speculation and conjecture. It was a stark contrast that they all felt strongly, but it was impossible to tell which one resonated more. Afterall, in order to convict the jury had to believe Joe Miller was guilty  _ “beyond reasonable doubt.” _ The question was whether or not Sharon had succeeded in giving them just enough doubt to keep them from getting a majority.

The judge gave her piece. “There's only one candidate on trial here - the defendant. The prosecution have to prove their case against this defendant. You have to be satisfied that you are sure of the defendant's guilt.  The defence, as part of their case, have offered you an alternative. If you think what the defence says is true, or may possibly be true, then the prosecution have failed in proving the guilt of the defendant. There's no burden on the defence to prove anything. There's no obligation on the defendant to give evidence. Now, you may draw your own conclusions as to why the defendant has chosen not to give evidence. But bear in mind, he will have obtained legal advice on the matter. You are the judges of fact. You must put aside any emotion and approach this in a cold, analytical way. Consider and assess all of the evidence that you've heard. The first thing you need to do is appoint a foreperson. And if you need to be reminded of any evidence, just pass a note via the jury bailiff. You will now be escorted to a private room to begin your deliberations.”

 

Mark and Beth spoke for the first time that day.

“Should I move out?” he asked as they stood outside the courthouse.

Beth stared at him for a few moments. “Do you want to?” She was surprised at how small her voice sounded. “Where would you go?”

He shrugged noncommittally. “I dunno.”

Beth shook her head. “I didn't say  _ leave, _ Mark. I said I need you to change.”

“And what if I can't?”

She squinted at him. “Will you stop thinking of life as something that happens to you? What we do now, that's who we are—” 

“You said you didn't need me,” he spoke over her.

“I said I can be alone, if I have to,” she corrected. “ _ You _ need to decide if we matter enough for you to change.”

And with that she walked back to where Ellie, Tom, Daisy, and Chloe were ordering lunch.

Rose and Alec, meanwhile, were speaking with Jocelyn at a small table on the mezzanine.

“I’ve spoken with Stone’s parole officer and he’s been called back to London as charges are being pressed,” she told them in a discreet tone. “A judge there has agreed to a private hearing regarding a restraining order. The defendant will not be present, only his lawyer,” she paused a smirked lightly before adding, “and the judge is maintaining the right to extend the original sentence based on the evidence provided.”

“Wait,” Rose barely managed to hope she was hearing her correctly. “You mean he could serve time for the charges that were dropped?”

Jocelyn‘s eyes glimmered mysteriously and her smirk became more pronounced. “I may have called in a few favours.”

“Oh my God,” Rose let out a relieved sob, letting her face fall into her hands as she felt the weight on her chest finally lift. “Oh my God, Jocelyn, how can I ever repay you? I—”

Jocelyn cut her off by putting her hand over hers. “You owe me nothing,” she told her seriously. “I’m glad I could help. Everything you do for our town, you deserve some peace of mind.”

Rose squeezed her hand in thanks and excused herself to go clean up. Alec let out a long breath as he watched her go, and his eyes fell back to Jocelyn. “If I’d known you had so much pull I would have come to you sooner.”

Jocelyn shook her head sadly. “As much as I hate to admit it, you were right to wait. It’s unlikely I would have been able to do this with Sharon watching our every moves like a hawk. I only felt it safe to make the call this morning. Jimmy should be in custody by now.”

“We appreciate it, Jocelyn, really, thank you.”

“I was happy to do it. Thank you for trusting me with this. I know it can’t have been easy.”

Alec looked down as Rose reappeared on the ground floor, jogging over to Ellie, Beth, Chloe, Daisy, and Tom. He watched as she told them something with a bright smile, even as she picked at the edge of her shirt nervously, and could hear their resulting exclamations drift up to him as she received hugs all around.

“You know,” Alec answered quietly, “it’s getting easier.”

Jocelyn took in his profile as he watched his wife and daughter and friends below them, and her heart ached. For the mother she’d just lost, for the lover she’d never had, for all the chances she ever let go in pursuit of some abstract feeling of success. She was alone. That’s what her work had led her to. A big, beautiful,  _ empty _ house.

 

Beth and Ellie pulled away from the others as they finished eating, going up a few levels to watch their family from afar. 

“I keep thinking about that last Sunday we were all together,” Beth started suddenly. “Before you went to Florida… You came to ours for a barbecue, and the boys all went out playing football till it got dark.”

Ellie laughed, “Way after it got dark. Remember Tom came into your kitchen to get torches, so they could carry on playing.”

“Oh yeah,” Beth laughed along with her, nose wrinkling happily at the memory. “I can still see them all now, when I shut my eyes. The sun's setting, and I can see them all playing. Danny and Mark… Tom, Nige and—” she cut herself off, giving Ellie a look.

“—and Joe,” Ellie finished regretfully. “Even the memories are spoiled.”

Beth shrugged in agreement, tilting her head giving her a small smile before going on. “...There was this moment where Dan spotted me looking out. And he ran over—in his yellow shirt. He ran to the window, all pink and sweaty from running round. And he pulled a face at the window and it made me laugh. I pulled one back… My little boy pulling faces at me.” 

Her voice shook as the sadness won over again, and Ellie’s expression mimicked her’s, both of them with tears in their eyes. Beth took a deep steadying breath and finally admitted all at once, “I'm thinking of leaving Mark.”

Ellie’s eyes widened. She opened her mouth to respond but no words came out.

Beth shook her head miserably. “It's not working. Even when this is over, it won't fix us. We're not the same people anymore.”

Ellie nodded in understanding. “Be careful, though, Beth,” she whispered. “You think you're alone in that marriage—you're not. It's nothing compared to being really alone.”

 

“Got anything juicy coming up next?” Abby asked Ben as the two of them worked clearing up their respective sides of the barrister’s panels.

“Er…” Ben tried to recall as he was focusing on sorting the files so that he wouldn’t have to later. “Armed robberies, Bristol.”

“Nice.”

Ben hummed. “You?”

“Sexual assault, Southwark,” she answered with a large excited grin.

Ben pulled his chin back and wrinkled his nose. “Oh.”

Abby didn’t seem to notice his expression, as she bounced on her toes and continued. “So, what do you think? The verdict?”

“I think it could go either way,” he answered noncommittally. “What do you reckon?”

“Oh we've won,” she said assuredly, and Ben let out a surprised laugh which she joined in on before sobering quickly. “Seriously though… I mean, Jocelyn, she's great. But she's past it.”

Ben pressed his lips together at that and walked slowly over to her. “Abby… I wanted to say,” he paused and looked up to her in obvious distaste. “I think you're a truly horrible person.”

Her mouth fell open, but she didn’t get a chance to respond as just then the bailiff came running in, pulling his arms through his jacket as he announced, “The jury are coming back in. There’s a verdict.”

“That was fast,” Ben commented as Jocelyn came in beside him. “Good or not good?”

Jocelyn seemed about a million miles away as she answered, “I guess we’ll find out.”

The jury filed in, the judge just behind them, and she spoke as they all took their seats.

“Have you reached a verdict on this defendant?” she asked the foreperson.

“Yes,” juror number twelve answered.

“Is this the verdict of you all?”

“Yes.”

The judge nodded and turned to look at Joe. “Will the defendant please stand,” she requested, and Joe did so as she turned back to the foreperson. “Do you find the defendant, Joseph Michael Miller, guilty or not guilty?”

There was a long silence. It was probably only a few seconds, but it felt like a thousand years. Not a single person in the room so much as breathed as they all unconsciously leaned forward.

“We find the defendant guilty, my lady,” she answered.

A lot happened after that.

In the years to come, it is likely no one will be able to tell you exactly what the reaction was. There was a simultaneous sigh of relief, as the tension that had built up over the last week—the last eight months, really—was finally released. Beth sobbed and seemed to collapse in on herself as Mark’s arm went around her and Chloe fell into her side.

And Joe screamed. A loud pitiful thing, his face turning red as he turned to look at his son. “NO!” He shouted desperately, “TOM! TOM!” Officers had to come and pull him away from the glass, putting him and handcuffs and keeping his limbs pinned down.

Tom shrunk away from the scene, his Mum concealing him from his father while Alec glared daggers at the man. Daisy ran from one side of the courtroom to the other so that she could grab her friend’s hand.

“Very well,” the judge spoke forcefully over the commotion, not seeming to mind that very few people seemed to be listening. “Joseph Michael Miller, you have been found guilty of murder contrary to common law. Given the sadistic nature of your crime, as well as the age of your victim, I am inclined to grant the prosecution it’s request for a whole life order.” Joe screamed out in anger at this again, but the judge simply raised her voice over him while still maintaining her general air of calm. “You are hereby sentenced to life in prison without chance of early release. Take him away.”

Joe continued screaming and calling desperately out to his son as the officers pulled him away, cutting off his protests with a loud slam of the door.

There was a eerie silence. 

Court was dismissed.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> epilogue will be posted within the next few days
> 
> as always your comments mean the world to me ❤︎


	8. Epilogue

It was an odd sort of feeling that washed over them after the trial. They’d won, but not really. Danny was still gone. Mark and Beth had lost their son. Chloe her brother. Tom and Daisy their friend. The case and trial had still done irreparable damage and left scars in their homes and in their community.

Justice had been served, but there was nothing just in what had happened.

Now it was just healing. There was no “once we know who did it it will be over” or “once he’s in prison everything will be better.” Because it couldn’t get  _ better.  _ It could only get easier to deal with.

 

A few days after the trial ended Rose and Alec drove to London to meet with the judge, and she extended Jimmy’s sentence by 60 years. 

That same day Maggie moved in with Jocelyn to become the Tyler-Hardy’s new neighbour, the two women coming out to everyone with an engagement announcement. To the surprise of everyone, including Rose, who was supposed to guess everything before it happened.

Well, she had a good excuse—two good excuses, actually—for being off her game the last two weeks.

They all gathered on the beach that weekend to celebrate the many victories of the past few days.

“God,” Rose started, taking another sip of sparkling cider. “I haven’t been surprised by an engagement since Alec proposed nearly fourteen years ago now.”

Ellie immediately perked up at that. “Oh?” she asked, trying to sound nonchalant, but her smile giving her away.

Rose laughed, shaking her head at her husband’s best mate. “It’s not an interesting story, I’m sorry. We were just at home really early in the morning—still in our jim jams and everything. I was really cross with him after cos I hadn’t even had my tea yet before he was kneeling in front of me launching into this big speech about— hello, dear!”

Ellie huffed, pouting comically as Rose cut herself off when Alec approached, eyeing them suspiciously.

“I don’t like the the two of standing over here all on your own,” he said mock-seriously. “Nothing but trouble, I can tell by the look of you.”

Both women were failing miserably to conceal their knowing grins behind their glasses—confirming his suspicions.

“She’s just telling me all your secrets,” Ellie told him, eyes glimmering with mischief.

“You better run, dear, before she can use them against you while your guard is down,” Rose played along.

Alec made an exasperated noise as they both giggled, sparing one last moment to place a kiss to Rose’s head and grab a beer from behind her before tucking tail and running off to continue watching the kids play football.

“Did you have a very big wedding?” Ellie asked, knowing that Rose had gotten enough of her wits back from Alec’s presence not to go into more detail about his proposal.

“Oh no,” Rose snorted. “A few weeks later we found a tiny little chapel in the middle of nowhere. Only invited family and close friends, no plus ones. It was small and private… very  _ us. _ ”

It was on the top of her tongue to correct her, to say that it’s only Alec who was the private one, but she stopped herself as it suddenly occurred to her that Rose was actually just as private a person as Alec was; she just somehow wasn’t as obvious about it—so much so, in fact, that Ellie hadn’t even noticed. 

Rose knew so much about everyone in the town—almost from the moment she got to town—but very few people knew much about her.

Ellie bit the inside of her cheek at the revelation and studied her profile. In just the last few days she’d discovered this huge major part of Rose’s past, and absolutely none of it aligned with the image she had of woman she saw standing before her today.

“Do you have a big family then?” Ellie asked, surreptitiously hedging for an explanation.

Rose smiled slightly to herself and looked around to all of them gathered together, sharing in their freedom to finally be able to heal. “I do now,” she said.

Ellie thought she should have been upset about that non-answer, but it was too beautiful a sentiment to really get angry at, so instead she smiled along with her, joining her in watching their kids run around with the sort of carefree ease she hadn’t seen on them in  _ months _ .

“Yeah,” she agreed. “Yeah, I suppose we do.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Work on series 3 has begun! In the meantime, subscribe to Among Thorns (or me) to make sure you don't miss anything! (Cos there might be some surprises headed your way.)
> 
> ❤︎


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